the state of being weak in health or body ( especially from old age)

the quality of lacking intensity or substance; " a shrill yet sweet tenuity of voice"- Nathaniel Hawthorne

The quality or condition of being feeble; debility; infirmity.

The state of being feeble.

In certain cases we appear to shrink away from it, as though it thrust upon us a sense of our own feebleness or insignificance. – Oxford Lectures on Poetry by Andrew Cecil Bradley

" I don't think I have ever seen one," remarked Mrs. Clifford, who, in her feebleness and in her home- nook, loved to hear about these bold, adventurous travellers. – Nature's Serial Story by E. P. Roe

I mean a sense of feebleness and wretchedness, as if there was much to be done, and no desire to do it- as if your life had been a long mistake from beginning to end. – Father Payne by Arthur Christopher Benson

As the siege continued, Aridius said to Clovis, O king, if the glory of thy greatness would suffer thee to listen to the words of my feebleness, though thou needest not counsel, I would submit them to thee in all fidelity, and they might be of use to thee, whether for thyself or for the towns by the which thou dost propose to pass. – A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times Volume I. of VI. by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

He was glad; but in his feebleness joy was as hard to bear as grief. – Ulysses S. Grant by Walter Allen

When he thought of what it might be to be Squire of Llanfeare in perhaps five years' time, with the rents in his pocket, he became angry at his own feebleness. – Cousin Henry by Anthony Trollope

But let us at least bargain that they shall not erect the maxims of their own feebleness into a rule for those who are braver and of stronger principle than themselves. – On Compromise by John Morley

During the confusion of that horrible night, and in the midst of the contention, in spite of his feebleness he crept away, and concealed himself from the soldiers amongst the bushes of the glen. – The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

A straw will tell which way the wind blows, and straws of hair- pins, during months of pain and feebleness, may, in after life, tell which way the wind has blown. – The Education of American Girls by Anna Callender Brackett

But in legitimate play we often got a 3 at these fifty- yard holes, and with our home- made clubs, our little white taws, our lack of knowledge, and our physical feebleness all taken into consideration, I say we have often done less creditable things since then. – The Complete Golfer [1905] by Harry Vardon

In sheer feebleness the stunned party sank down upon the prostrate log. – Idle Hour Stories by Eugenia Dunlap Potts

He was then seventy- seven years old, and, although he spoke of age and feebleness, he showed few signs of either; he was, in fact, to live eight years more. – Stories of Authors, British and American by Edwin Watts Chubb

Bruce considers that the indifference was only seeming towards the man,- that it was indeed powerlessness, for he constantly observed that, however lively the snake was before, yet upon being seized by any of the blacks, it seemed as if taken with sudden sickness and feebleness, frequently shut its eyes, and never turned its mouth towards the arm of the person who held it. – The Romance of Natural History, Second Series by Philip Henry Gosse

The weak must bear in weakness, as well as the strong in strength; and the light burden rests as painfully on the back that bends in feebleness, as does the heavy one on Atlas- shoulders. – All's for the Best by T. S. Arthur

But I had boasted to Sheikh bin Nasib that a white man never breaks his word, and my reputation as a white man would have been ruined had I stayed behind, or postponed the march, in consequence of feebleness. – How I Found Livingstone by Sir Henry M. Stanley

He is but a shadow of himself, and I cannot wonder that he is so bitter against the enemy, or that he desires, less on account of his bodily feebleness than from a wish to revenge his cruel treatment, to serve with the horse. – Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker by S. Weir Mitchell

I do not, for my part, believe this: and I believe the so- called necessity of Art to be the mere feebleness of the artist. – The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

They teach us that, physical misfortune apart, there is remedy for all; and that to complain of destiny is only to expose our own feebleness of soul. – Wisdom and Destiny by Maurice Maeterlinck