incapacitated

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adjective

in·​ca·​pac·​i·​tat·​ed ˌin-kə-ˈpa-sə-ˌtā-təd 

: deprived of capacity or natural power : made incapable of or unfit for normal functioning

… can care for cats while the owners are away or are temporarily incapacitated and unable to care for their pets.

—Karen Commings

… when an incapacitated patient hasn't left a living will or designated someone to make his or her medical decisions, families agree on what to do anyway in about two-thirds of the cases …

—Jeff Chu et al.

Eventually, he [Washington Roebling] became bedridden, in a room that overlooked the bridge under construction, with Emily effectively serving as assistant engineer and intermediary between the incapacitated chief engineer and his lieutenants on the construction site.

—Henry Petroski

incapacitated

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past tense and past participle of incapacitate

Examples of incapacitated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Toward the end of the film, that kid is grown up and stuck in an incestuous relationship with his mother, while a nearly incapacitated Dau sits drooling nearby. — Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026

Alejandro Diaz Torriente, 67, inserted himself into the incapacitated woman’s life to take her money and her property, according to a 2023 arrest affidavit. — Sofia Saric, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2026

Leagues want franchises to have predictable and reliable succession plans for when a controlling owner dies or becomes incapacitated. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 18 Aug. 2026

Prosecutors, who had sought seven years and seven months in jail, said that the four women accusing him of rape, in both the proven and unproven cases, had each time been too unconscious or too incapacitated to resist him after attending parties. — Gwladys Fouche, USA Today, 15 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1769, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for incapacitated

• ameliorated
• decontaminated
• deoxygenated
• deteriorated
• differentiated
• disarticulated
• excommunicated
• individuated
• misappropriated
• monounsaturated
• multinucleated
• nonaffiliated