handicaps

Noun

handicap (countable and uncountable, plural handicaps)

1. Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
   • Age is often a handicap.
2. 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.
3. (sometimes considered offensive) An individual's physical or mental disadvantage or disability.
4. 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.
5. (obsolete, uncountable) 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
6. (obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of hand-in-cap (“old English trading game”).

   Synonyms:

   hand-in-cap

See all 9 meanings of handicap