What does handicap mean?
Definitions for handicap
ˈhæn diˌkæphand·i·cap
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word handicap.
Princeton's WordNet
disability, disablement, handicap, impairmentnoun
the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness
"reading disability"; "hearing impairment"
handicapnoun
advantage given to a competitor to equalize chances of winning
hindrance, hinderance, deterrent, impediment, balk, baulk, check, handicapverb
something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress
disable, invalid, incapacitate, handicapverb
injure permanently
"He was disabled in a car accident"
handicapverb
attempt to forecast the winner (especially in a horse race) and assign odds for or against a contestant
handicap, hinder, hamperverb
put at a disadvantage
"The brace I have to wear is hindering my movements"
GCIDE
handicapnoun
a physical or mental disability of the body which makes normal human activities more difficult or impossible; as, his deformed leg was a major handicap in walking.
handicapnoun
any disadvantage that makes an activity more difficult or impossible; as, insufficient capital was a big handicap in competing against Microsoft.
Wiktionary
handicapnoun
An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
handicapnoun
The disadvantage itself, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people.
handicapnoun
A race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
handicapnoun
An old game at cards. - Pepys
handicapverb
To encumber with a handicap in any contest.
handicapverb
To place at disadvantage.
The candidate was heavily handicapped.
handicapverb
To estimate betting odds.
Grandpa Andy would buy the racing form the day ahead of time so he could handicap the race before he even arrived at the track.
Etymology: From hand in cap, in reference to holding the game stakes in a cap.
ChatGPT
handicap
A handicap is a condition or situation that makes progress, success, or achievement difficult, often referring to a physical or mental disadvantage or disability that restricts a person's abilities in certain areas. In sports and games, it refers to an advantage or disadvantage imposed on a participant or team for the purpose of equalizing chances of winning.
Webster Dictionary
Handicapnoun
an allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race to the competitor possessing inferior advantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing superior advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success; as, the handicap was five seconds, or ten pounds, and the like
Handicapnoun
a race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors
Handicapnoun
an old game at cards
Handicapverb
to encumber with a handicap in any contest; hence, in general, to place at disadvantage; as, the candidate was heavily handicapped
Etymology: [From hand in cap; -- perh. in reference to an old mode of settling a bargain by taking pieces of money from a cap.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Handicap
hand′i-kap, v.t. to impose special disadvantages or impediments upon in order to offset advantages, and make a better contest—in a horse-race the superior horse carries a heavier weight, while foot-runners are placed at different distances, or start at different times: (fig.) to place at a disadvantage by some burden or disability.—n. any contest so adjusted, or the condition imposed.—n. Hand′icapper, one who handicaps. [Hand in the cap, from the usage in an ancient kind of sport and method of settling a bargain by arbitration.]
British National Corpus
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'handicap' in Nouns Frequency: #2340
Usage in printed sourcesFrom:
- [["1515","3"],["1607","2"],["1688","1"],["1719","1"],["1723","1"],["1731","1"],["1760","1"],["1764","1"],["1785","1"],["1796","1"],["1799","1"],["1801","1"],["1803","10"],["1804","3"],["1808","4"],["1809","2"],["1811","3"],["1814","1"],["1815","3"],["1816","2"],["1819","2"],["1820","1"],["1823","1"],["1824","2"],["1825","1"],["1826","1"],["1827","2"],["1828","5"],["1829","10"],["1830","8"],["1831","4"],["1833","3"],["1834","8"],["1835","1"],["1836","2"],["1837","2"],["1838","1"],["1839","5"],["1840","129"],["1841","7"],["1842","4"],["1843","5"],["1844","4"],["1845","7"],["1846","25"],["1847","11"],["1848","12"],["1849","5"],["1850","4"],["1851","3"],["1852","7"],["1853","26"],["1854","35"],["1855","19"],["1856","3"],["1857","48"],["1858","13"],["1859","26"],["1860","35"],["1861","11"],["1862","17"],["1863","22"],["1864","14"],["1865","26"],["1866","36"],["1867","23"],["1868","20"],["1869","28"],["1870","32"],["1871","46"],["1872","23"],["1873","34"],["1874","51"],["1875","28"],["1876","46"],["1877","51"],["1878","35"],["1879","124"],["1880","105"],["1881","86"],["1882","136"],["1883","179"],["1884","184"],["1885","101"],["1886","168"],["1887","272"],["1888","138"],["1889","191"],["1890","345"],["1891","529"],["1892","308"],["1893","364"],["1894","355"],["1895","393"],["1896","648"],["1897","408"],["1898","639"],["1899","697"],["1900","846"],["1901","998"],["1902","859"],["1903","1064"],["1904","1398"],["1905","1574"],["1906","1614"],["1907","1864"],["1908","1940"],["1909","1979"],["1910","2160"],["1911","2418"],["1912","3242"],["1913","3240"],["1914","3169"],["1915","3625"],["1916","4310"],["1917","4343"],["1918","4116"],["1919","5294"],["1920","5396"],["1921","5334"],["1922","6973"],["1923","5040"],["1924","5205"],["1925","5128"],["1926","5177"],["1927","5811"],["1928","6258"],["1929","5784"],["1930","6621"],["1931","6825"],["1932","5817"],["1933","5644"],["1934","6166"],["1935","6639"],["1936","6905"],["1937","7483"],["1938","6827"],["1939","7738"],["1940","7630"],["1941","7076"],["1942","6956"],["1943","5378"],["1944","5366"],["1945","6069"],["1946","7669"],["1947","8988"],["1948","8812"],["1949","9670"],["1950","9772"],["1951","9047"],["1952","8482"],["1953","9622"],["1954","9275"],["1955","10020"],["1956","10421"],["1957","10088"],["1958","10605"],["1959","10524"],["1960","11764"],["1961","11909"],["1962","12643"],["1963","13534"],["1964","13497"],["1965","15280"],["1966","15837"],["1967","16446"],["1968","17184"],["1969","16358"],["1970","19062"],["1971","18848"],["1972","18916"],["1973","18106"],["1974","18033"],["1975","18162"],["1976","17616"],["1977","17186"],["1978","18918"],["1979","20698"],["1980","20769"],["1981","18482"],["1982","21951"],["1983","19979"],["1984","21471"],["1985","23399"],["1986","22803"],["1987","22870"],["1988","23888"],["1989","24518"],["1990","24883"],["1991","24066"],["1992","24150"],["1993","25426"],["1994","23981"],["1995","25041"],["1996","23338"],["1997","23852"],["1998","24730"],["1999","24601"],["2000","28071"],["2001","25442"],["2002","26351"],["2003","28613"],["2004","28529"],["2005","29074"],["2006","27286"],["2007","29498"],["2008","30374"]]
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of handicap in Chaldean Numerology is: 1
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of handicap in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
Examples of handicap in a Sentence
Mild autism can provide some intellectual advantages and severe autism is a great handicap, if all the autism traits were removed, we would lose many creative minds in music, art, math and science.
Since it is seldom clear whether intellectual activity denotes a superior mode of being or a vital deficiency, opinion swings between considering intellect a privilege and seeing it as a handicap.
If he were to have severe handicaps, we are convinced that is not at all what Jules would want, we talked about it. He told us that if one day he had an accident like Michael Schumacher's, even if his only handicap was not being able to drive, he would have a lot of difficulty living with it. Because it was his life.
To make it easy, you can sign up to affiliate with a golf club for handicap purposes, if someone doesn't want to belong to a traditional club, which the younger generation really doesn't, they still play at a club or clubs close by and those clubs have a reasonable chance of knowing that player and their ability.
There is no black and white dividing line between mild autistic traits and having a label of autism, and geeks and nerds in Silicon Valley, mild autism can provide some intellectual advantages and severe autism is a great handicap.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for handicap
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- عائقArabic
- авансBulgarian
- Behinderung, VorsprungGerman
- discapacidad, minusvalíaSpanish
- vamma, tasoituskilpailu, haitta, tasoitusFinnish
- handicapFrench
- अपंगताHindi
- rintanganIndonesian
- fötlun, forgjöfIcelandic
- ಹ್ಯಾಂಡಿಕ್ಯಾಪ್Kannada
- impedimentumLatin
- handicapDutch
- fory, upośledzeniePolish
- vantagemPortuguese
- недостаток, увечье, фора, гандикапRussian
- försprångSwedish
- kilemaSwahili
- అంగవైకల్యాన్నిTelugu
- engel, özürTurkish
Get even more translations for handicap »
Translation
Find a translation for the handicap definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"handicap." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/handicap>.
Discuss these handicap definitions with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In