impair

English

Alternative forms

• empair (obsolete) (rare)

Etymology

From Old French empeirier, from Vulgar Latin *impeiorare, from in- + Late Latin peiorare (“to make worse”), from peior (“worse”), a comparative of malus (“bad”).

Verb

impair (third-person singular simple present impairs, present participle impairing, simple past and past participle impaired)

1. (transitive) To weaken; to affect negatively; to have a diminishing effect on.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To grow worse; to deteriorate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Derived terms

• impairment

Translations

have a diminishing effect on

• Cherokee: ᎠᏲᏍᏙᏗ (chr) (ayosdodi)
• Dutch: beschadigen (nl), verzwakken (nl), verslechteren (nl)
• Finnish: haitata (fi), heikentää (fi)
• French: détériorer (fr), abîmer (fr), affaiblir (fr)
• German: beeinträchtigen (1), schädigen (de) (reputation), beschädigen (de), schwächen (de), vermindern (de), verschlechtern (de), schmälern (de)

• Portuguese: prejudicar, enfraquecer, diminuir
• Romanian: a afecta in mod negativ, a diminua efectul, a subrezi
• Russian: ослаблять (ru) (oslablját’)
• Spanish: deteriorar (es), empeorar (es), descomponer (es)
• Turkish: azaltmak (tr), kötüleştirmek (tr), zarar vermek (tr), zayıflatmak (tr), sınırlamak (tr)

External links

• impair in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• impair in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• impair at OneLook Dictionary Search

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French

Adjective

impair m (feminine impaire, masculine plural impairs, feminine plural impaires)

1. odd (of a number)

   3 est un nombre impair. - 3 is an odd number.

Antonyms

• pair

References

• “impair” in the Portail lexical, Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, 2013.

Anagrams

• primai