overfeeble

English

Alternative forms

• over-feeble

Etymology

From Middle English overfeble; equivalent to over- +‎ feeble.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊvɚˈfiːbəl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈfiːbəl/

Adjective

overfeeble (comparative more overfeeble, superlative most overfeeble)

1. (literary, now rare) Feeble to an excessive or debilitating degree.
   • 1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen‎^[1], Isaac Iaggard, Nouell 8, The Eighth Day:

     […] purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.

   • 1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat‎^[2], Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237:

     For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spirit of liberty and justice in the New World, ought to produce a revolution in France.

   • 1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories‎^[3], Project Gutenberg, published 9 September 2004, →ISBN, page 71:

     The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

Translations

overly feeble

• Middle English: overfeble