incompetent
[in-kom-pi-tuh nt]
- not competent; lacking qualification or ability; incapable: an incompetent candidate.
- characterized by or showing incompetence: His incompetent acting ruined the play.
- Law.
- being unable or legally unqualified to perform specified acts or to be held legally responsible for such acts.
- inadmissible, as evidence.
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- an incompetent person; a mentally deficient person.
- Law. a person lacking power to act with legal effectiveness.
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Origin of incompetent
Synonyms
See more synonyms for incompetent on Thesaurus.com1. unqualified, inadequate, unfit. See incapable.
Antonyms
1. able, qualified.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for incompetent
Contemporary Examples
Early on, the sexual protagonist complains that her Molson-drinking husband is pretty much an incompetent Neanderthal.
The cops were as incompetent as they often appear to be in the Holmes stories.
Insufficient protocols or incompetent practices for and by the nurses in the hospital hot zone.
To buy that you would have to accept that Brooks was either negligent or incompetent.
Murdoch on the Rocks: How a Lone Reporter Revealed the Mogul's Tabloid Terror MachineClive Irving
August 25, 2014
According to the historian John Saunders, he was a “weak, vain, incompetent and cowardly” leader.
Historical Examples
If she was incompetent I wasn't bound to keep her just because she'd had a baby.
Life and Death of Harriett FreanMay Sinclair
He knew how Washington and incompetent officers had blundered and lied to them.
When the West Was YoungFrederick R. Bechdolt
He was drawn this way and that, struggling with a brain that he knew to be incompetent.
The Twins of Suffering CreekRidgwell Cullum
In fact, he felt like a jelly fish save that he was twice as incompetent.
Mixed FacesRoy Norton
He was unsystematic in his habits, and incompetent in money matters.
History of the Moravian ChurchJ. E. Hutton
incompetent
- not possessing the necessary ability, skill, etc to do or carry out a task; incapable
- marked by lack of ability, skill, etc
- law not legally qualifiedan incompetent witness
- (of rock strata, folds, etc) yielding readily to pressure so as to undergo structural deformation
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- an incompetent person
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for incompetent
adj.
1610s, "insufficient," from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem (nominative incompetens) "insufficient," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + Latin competentem (see competent). Sense of "lacking qualification or ability" first recorded 1630s. The noun meaning "incompetent person" is from 1866. Related: Incompetently.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
incompetent
(ĭn-kŏm′pĭ-tənt)- Inadequate for or unsuited to a particular purpose or application.
- Incapable of proper functioning.
- Not qualified in legal terms.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.