Ĭm'po-tençe or Ĭm'po-ten-çy, n.

[Lat. impotentia, Sp. impotencia, It. impotenza, impotenzia.] 1. The quality or condition of being impotent; want of strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral; weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility; defect of power, natural or adventitious, to perform any thing. Some were poor by the impotency of nature; as young fatherless children, old decrepit persons, idiots, and cripples. Hayward. O, impotence of mind in body strong! Milton.

2. Want of self-restraint; unchecked or ungovernable passion; — a Latinism. [Rare.] Milton.
3. (Law & Physiol.) Want of procreative power; inability to copulate, or to beget children; also, sometimes, sterility; barrenness.