[han-dee-kapt] 
| 1. | physically or mentally disabled. |
| 2. | (of a contestant) marked by, being under, or having a handicap: a handicapped player. |
| 3. | (used with a plural verb ) handicapped persons collectively (usually prec. by the): increased job opportunities for the handicapped. |
[han-dee-kap] noun, verb, -capped, -cap⋅ping.| 1. | a race or other contest in which certain disadvantages or advantages of weight, distance, time, etc., are placed upon competitors to equalize their chances of winning. |
| 2. | the disadvantage or advantage itself. |
| 3. | any disadvantage that makes success more difficult: The main handicap of our business is lack of capital. |
| 4. | a physical or mental disability making participation in certain of the usual activities of daily living more difficult. |
| 5. | to place at a disadvantage; disable or burden: He was handicapped by his injured ankle. |
| 6. | to subject to a disadvantageous handicap, as a competitor of recognized superiority. |
| 7. | to assign handicaps to (competitors). |
| 8. | Sports.
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| hand·i·cap (hān'dē-kāp') n.
[From obsolete hand in cap, a game in which forfeits were held in a cap.] |
| hand·i·capped (hān'dē-kāpt') adj. Physically or mentally disabled: a pool equipped for handicapped swimmers. n. (used with a pl. verb) People who have a physical or mental disability considered as a group. Often used with the. Usage Note: Although handicapped is widely used in both law and everyday speech to refer to people having physical or mental disabilities, those described by the word tend to prefer the expressions disabled or people with disabilities. Handicapped, a somewhat euphemistic term, may imply a helplessness that is not suggested by the more forthright disabled. It is also felt that some stigma may attach to the word handicapped because of its origin in the phrase hand in cap, actually derived from a game of chance but sometimes mistakenly believed to involve the image of a beggar. The word handicapped is best reserved to describe a disabled person who is unable to function owing to some property of the environment. Thus people with a physical disability requiring a wheelchair may or may not be handicapped, depending on whether wheelchair ramps are made available to them. See Usage Note at disabled. |
handicap hand·i·cap (hān'dē-kāp')
n.
A physical, mental, or emotional condition that interferes with one's normal functioning.
