LAMENESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lameness mean? 

• LAMENESS (noun)
  The noun LAMENESS has 2 senses:

1. disability of walking due to crippling of the legs or feet

2. an imperfection or defectiveness

  Familiarity information: LAMENESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAMENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Disability of walking due to crippling of the legs or feet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

claudication; gameness; gimp; gimpiness; lameness; limping

Hypernyms ("lameness" is a kind of...):

disability of walking (a disability that interferes with or prevents walking)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lameness"):

intermittent claudication (lameness due to pain in leg muscles because the blood supply is inadequate; pain subsides with rest)

Derivation:

lame (disabled in the feet or legs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An imperfection or defectiveness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

a stylist noted for the lameness of his plots

Hypernyms ("lameness" is a kind of...):

defectiveness; faultiness (the state of being defective)

Derivation:

lame (pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness)

 Context examples 

A horse so treated would develop a slight lameness, which would be put down to a strain in exercise or a touch of rheumatism, but never to foul play.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His lameness prevented him from taking much exercise; but a mind of usefulness and ingenuity seemed to furnish him with constant employment within.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Limping or lameness.

(Claudication, Food and Drug Administration)

But his lameness?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My wretched feet, flayed and swollen to lameness by the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside under the gentler breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)