impair

• empair (obsolete, rare)

From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, from Early Medieval Latin impeiōrāre, from in- + Late Latin peiōrāre (“worsen”), from peiōrem (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛə(ɹ)/, /ɪmˈpɛː(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpeə(ɹ)/, /ɪmˈpeː(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

impair (third-person singular simple present impairs, present participle impairing, simple past and past participle impaired)

1. (transitive) To weaken; to affect negatively; to have a diminishing effect on.
   • 2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     In 2016, it was announced that Jones had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that impairs the ability to communicate.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To grow worse; to deteriorate.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Flesh may empaire, […] but reason can repaire.

• See Thesaurus:hinder

• impairment

impair (comparative more impair, superlative most impair)

1. (obsolete) Not fit or appropriate; unsuitable.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

     giues he not till iudgement guide his bounty, / Nor dignifies an impaire thought with breath:

impair (plural impair or impairs)

1. (obsolete) The act of impairing or deteriorating.
2. (obsolete) The fact of being impaired or having grown worse.
3. (obsolete) An impairment or deterioration.
   • 1671, Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes, pages 146–147:

     Suppoſe a mans credit ſhould ſuffer an impair with thoſe whoſe cenſure is not to be valued; yet think, which is worſe, ſhame or ſin? Wilt thou ſin againſt God to ſave thy credit?

• “impair”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “impair”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “impair”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from Latin impār. By surface analysis, im- +‎ pair.

impair (feminine impaire, masculine plural impairs, feminine plural impaires)

1. odd (of a number)

   Antonym: pair

   3 est un nombre impair. ― 3 is an odd number.

• pair

• fonction impaire
• nombre impair

• “impair”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• primai