INANITION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inanition mean? 

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

1. weakness characterized by a lack of vitality or energy

2. exhaustion resulting from lack of food

  Familiarity information: INANITION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INANITION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Weakness characterized by a lack of vitality or energy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

inanition; lassitude; lethargy; slackness

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

weakness (the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exhaustion resulting from lack of food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

exhaustion (extreme fatigue)

 Context examples 

I was now nearly sick from inanition, having taken so little the day before.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It may be reasonably inferred that our baby will first expire of inanition, as being the frailest member of our circle; and that our twins will follow next in order. So be it!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

My friend had no breakfast himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure inanition.

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

I perceived that I was sickening from excitement and inanition; neither meat nor drink had passed my lips that day, for I had taken no breakfast.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate; and when our energies seem to demand a sustenance they cannot get—when our will strains after a path we may not follow—we need neither starve from inanition, nor stand still in despair: we have but to seek another nourishment for the mind, as strong as the forbidden food it longed to taste—and perhaps purer; and to hew out for the adventurous foot a road as direct and broad as the one Fortune has blocked up against us, if rougher than it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)