inanition
/ɪnəˈnɪʃən/ noun
Forms inanitions
- noun The act of removing the contents of something; the state of being empty.
- noun (medicine) A state of advanced lack of adequate nutrition, food, or water or a physiological inability to utilize them, with resulting weakness.
- noun (philosophy) A spiritual emptiness or lack of purpose or will to live, akin to nausea in existentialist philosophy.
Synonyms
emptying emptiness starvation cachexia lassitude lethargy slackness
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English inanicioun, borrowed from Old French inanition, itself borrowed from Late Latin inānītio, from inānīre (“to make empty”), from inānis (“empty, vain”); see inane.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The condition of being inane; emptiness; want of fullness, as in the vessels of the body; hence, specifically, exhaustion from want of food, either from partial or complete starvation, or from a disorder of the digestive apparatus, producing the same result.
Etymology [F. inanition, L. inanitio emptiness, fr. inanire to empty, fr. inanis empty. Cf. Inane.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “inanition”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details