incontinent
Pluralincontinents
- 1Unable to hold in the body's natural discharges, most commonly urine or feces.
Nursing staff check incontinent residents every two hours and change their bedding as needed.
The surgery left him temporarily incontinent, which he found more humiliating than the pain.
Oppositecontinent
- 2Unable to hold something in or keep it contained.
Incontinent of gossip, he repeated every confidence within the hour.
A man incontinent of his grief, he wept openly at every mention of his son.
Note
Here the word keeps its widest meaning, failing to hold something in; it came through Old French from Latin incontinens, built from in and continens. It often takes of before whatever escapes, as in incontinent of secrets or of grief, and that of keeps it clear of the medical meaning.
- 3Going on without restraint or without ever stopping.
The press secretary faced an incontinent flood of questions after the announcement.
Through the thin wall came the incontinent chatter of the radio, hour after hour.
Similarincessant, ceaseless, unceasing, unrestrained
- 4Showing no moderation, self-control, or moral restraint in indulging one's appetites, above all sexual desire.
The chronicler portrays the young king as idle, extravagant, and incontinent in his pleasures.
Her diary records her disgust at a husband so incontinent that he kept a mistress in every town he visited.
Less common meanings
- 5At once and without any delay.
He says he will return incontinent:
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”Note
The adverb comes at the end of its clause, where verse can rhyme on it: Thomas Nashe pairs "remoue the camp incontinent" with discontent in 1593, and Shakespeare's Othello has "He says he will return incontinent". It has long dropped out of use, and a modern reader will hear the bodily meaning first, so at once or immediately is the safe choice today.
- 6A person who lacks sexual restraint and does not live chastely.
O, old Incontinent, dost not thou shame
1598, Ben Jonson, “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie.”Note
Ben Jonson shows the noun at work in Every Man in His Humour (1598), hurling it as a reproach: "O, old Incontinent, dost not thou shame". It turns the adjective for sexual excess into a name for the person, and it is obsolete now; the adjective carries the same charge today.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
From Middle English incontinent, from Old French incontinent, which goes back to Latin incontinens, formed from in- and continens.