Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to neurasthenia or nervous debility; affected or characterized by neurasthenia.
  • noun A person suffering from nervous debility.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to neurasthenia; that is, tendencies of a person who has suffered a nervous breakdown.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or suffering from neurasthenia
  • noun a person suffering a nervous breakdown

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But still more often one sees the appearance of increased fatigue on account of the patient's faulty notion; and to this the name neurasthenic should certainly not be given.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

  • It is true that certain manifestations of this, especially a false gastropathy, may lead to an increased fatigue, and to this the name neurasthenic might appropriately be given.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

  • "It must have been what Dr. Hewitt called neurasthenic inhibition," said

    The Rose-Garden Husband Margaret Widdemer 1931

  • She intended to say that she was paying sixty-five dollars a week and belonged to a leading family, and that she didn't mean to endure for a moment the treatment she was getting, and being called a neurasthenic and made to cook for the other patients.

    Love Stories Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • This picture may be further complicated by so-called neurasthenic, psychasthenic, hysterical or other reactions.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

  • The mental condition of ticquers is especially characterized by the imperfection or weakness of volition, by a certain degree of mental instability and lack of inhibitory control of the desires, tendencies, activities and motor expressions of the individual, this defect laying the groundwork for the impulsions and obsessions, as also for hysterical, so-called neurasthenic, hypochondriacal, depressive and so-called dementia praecox reactions.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

  • In other words: is it already stricken with senility, and will it see itself soon obliged to yield its civilizing rôle to other peoples less degenerate, less neurasthenic, that is to say, younger, more robust, more healthy, than itself?

    The New World of Islam Lothrop Stoddard 1916

  • Cambridge is cool, and I'd love to live near Newbury Comics, but there's something kind of neurasthenic that flows through the Charles.

    how about Pierre, SD? 2004

  • Cambridge is cool, and I'd love to live near Newbury Comics, but there's something kind of neurasthenic that flows through the Charles.

    found while packing 2004

  • The dissimilarity of terms and resemblances of ideas has another illustration in the reference to energy and the will; here it is clearly pointed out that the apparent aboulia of the "neurasthenic" is not a lack, but an unfruitful directing of the will while the Viennese school imply the same idea in their doctrine of sublimation.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

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