Also 8 ennervate. [ad. L. ēnervāt-us, pa. pple. of ēnervāre: see next.]
1. Wanting in strength of character; spiritless, unmanly, effeminate.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 11. They waxe carelesse, dissolute, and enervate.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., II. p. 21. The dregs and droppings of enervate Love?
1749. J. Warton, Ode West’s Pindar, in Lond. Mag., XVIII. 333/1 (T.).
| Away, enervate bards, away, | |
| Who spin the courtly, silken lay. |
1774. Goldsmith, Grec. History, I. 176. We are to behold an ennervate and factious populace.
1822. Wordsw., Eccl. Sonn., I. ix. Poet. Wks. IV. 201. The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land By Rome abandoned.
1830. Fraser’s Mag., I. 515. The enervate candidates for place and patronage.
b. of artistic style, etc.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Prol. to 1st Sat. Persius (1730), I. 51. Nor Virgil’s great majestick lines Melted into enervate Rhimes.
1762. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., xii. (1763), 209. Certain Greeks … brought a refined and enervate Species of Music to ROME.
1884. Blackw. Mag., April, 432/2. And let it not be supposed that this art of temperance and obedience was enervate, monotonous, or slow.
2. Wanting in bodily strength or physical power.
1703. Rowe, Ulyss., I. i. 335. My cold enervate hand.
1737. Pope, Hor. Epist., II. i. 153. On each enervate string they taught the note, To pant.
1741. Betterton, in Oldys, Eng. Stage, vi. 110. Such a languid and ennervate Hoarseness.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., I. 672. When eastern breezes, yet enervate, rise.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, II. lvi. The enervate slightness of his frail form.
3. Bot. Having no rib or nerve; ribless.
