INCOMPETENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Incompetent

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/ɪnkˈɑmpətənt/ Listen

adjective

Incompetent adj.

1.

Not competent; wanting in adequate strength, power, capacity, means, qualifications, or the like; incapable; unable; inadequate; unfit. "Incompetent to perform the duties of the place."

2.

(Law) Wanting the legal or constitutional qualifications; inadmissible; as, a person professedly wanting in religious belief is an incompetent witness in a court of law or equity; incompetent evidence; a mentally defective person is incompetent to care for himself and requires a legal guardian. "Richard III. had a resolution, out of hatred to his brethren, to disable their issues, upon false and incompetent pretexts, the one of attainder, the other of illegitimation."

3.

Not lying within one's competency, capacity, or authorized power; not permissible.

Synonyms: Incapable; unable; inadequate; insufficient; inefficient; disqualified; unfit; improper. Incompetent, Incapable. Incompetent is a relative term, denoting a lack of the requisite qualifications for performing a given act, service, etc.; incapable is absolute in its meaning, denoting lack of power, either natural or moral. We speak of a man as incompetent to a certain task, of an incompetent judge, etc. We say of an idiot that he is incapable of learning to read; and of a man distinguished for his honor, that he is incapable of a mean action.

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Etymology of 'Incompetent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Incompetent" Quotes from Famous Books

... sea is a sort of lounging-room for those passengers who are bored from reading, or poker, or promenading, or simply are incompetent to amuse themselves without external assistance, Peter ignored the dozen pair of curious and interested eyes which were focussed on his white uniform as he passed, with those telltale chevrons of golden sparks at the sleeves, strode into the wireless cabin, hastily closed ...

— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts

... because of an old psychological trait, people don't like to be losers. To be a loser makes one feel inferior and incompetent. On September 23, 1947, when the chief of ATIC sent a letter to the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces stating that UFO's were real, intelligence committed themselves. They had to prove it. They tried for a year and a half with no success. Officers on top began to get anxious and the press ...

— The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects • Edward Ruppelt

... for in her most optimistic moments. And now Japan has, with the blessing of the great Powers at Paris, become also the heir of German concessions, intrigues and ambitions, with added concessions, wrung (or bought) from incompetent and corrupt officials by secret agreements when the world was busy with war. If all the great Powers are so afraid of Japan that they give way to her every wish, what is China that she can escape the doom prepared for her? That is the cry of helplessness ...

— China, Japan and the U.S.A. - Present-Day Conditions in the Far East and Their Bearing - on the Washington Conference • John Dewey

... reserve amply fitted to control home waters. The gentlemen from the West had at last been constrained to acknowledge that a college for the training of diplomats was as necessary as law schools are for the training of barristers; consequently we were no longer represented abroad by incompetent patriots. The nation was prosperous; Chicago, for a moment paralyzed after a second great fire, had risen from its ruins, white and imperial, and more beautiful than the white city which had been built for its ...

— The King In Yellow • Robert W. Chambers

... their taking them up; and if there was no criminality in their taking them up, then the United States was criminal in the war by which they were forced to lay them down. On this theory we have a government incompetent to legislate for insurgent States, because lacking their representatives, waging against them a cruel and unjust war. And this is the real theory of the defeated Rebels and Copperheads who formed the great mass of the delegates to the Johnson Convention. Should they get into power, ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 • Various

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