handicap
/ˈhændikæp/
handicap noun: something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
Noun
handicap (countable and uncountable, plural handicaps)
- Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
- Age is often a handicap.
- Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as...1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
- The older boy won, even though his opponent had been granted a handicap of five meters.
- A handicap in chess often involves removal of the queen's rook.
- An individual's physical or mental disadvantage or disability.
- A race or similar contest in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
- An old card game, similar to lanterloo.
- Here some of us fell to handicap, a sport that I never knew before, which was very good.1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys, page 95
- Synonym of hand-in-cap (“old English trading game”).
- Synonyms:
- hand-in-cap
Verb
handicap (third-person singular simple present handicaps, present participle handicapping, simple past and past participle handicapped)
- To encumber with a handicap in any contest.
- To place at disadvantage.
- The candidate was handicapped by her lack of experience.
- To estimate betting odds.
- Grandpa Andy would buy the racing form the day ahead of time so he could handicap the race before he even arrived at the track.
handicap meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
handicap in Hindi
- something that prevents, hampers, or hinders
- बाधा bādhā
- disadvantage, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people
- विकलांगता viklāṅgtā
handicap in Tamil
- disadvantage, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people
- ஊனம் ūṉam
handicap in Bengali
- প্রতিবন্ধকতা, শারীরিক, মানসিক অক্ষমতা, বাধাগ্রস্ত করা
handicap in Malayalam
- disadvantage, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people
- വൈകല്യം vaikalyaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- handicap in Kannada
- ಅಡ್ಡಿ, ತೊಂದರೆ
- handicap in Persian
- آوانس âvâns, فرجه forje
- handicap in Thai
- แต้มต่อ
Examples of handicap in a sentence
- He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- It was a sensational race owing to the conduct of the field, but on the handicap the elephant won, bicycle second, motor car third.1901, “Gleanings”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 1, page 31:
Synonyms of handicap
Forms of handicap
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | handicaps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | handicaps |
| present participle | handicapping |
| past participle | handicapped |
| past | handicapped |
Origin of handicap
From hand-in-cap, in reference to holding the game stakes in a cap.
Words formed from handicap
Questions about handicap
- What does handicap mean?
- Handicap means something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
- What is handicap in Hindi?
- Handicap in Hindi is बाधा (bādhā), विकलांगता (viklāṅgtā). See Handicap meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use handicap in a sentence?
- He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
- What part of speech is handicap?
- Handicap can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce handicap?
- Handicap is pronounced /ˈhændikæp/.
- What is the plural of handicap?
- The plural of handicap is handicaps.
Words near handicap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: handicap (page history and authors); handicap (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); handicap (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-handicap.wav.
Cite this entry: “handicap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/handicap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.