Dote vs. Imbecile — What's the Difference?

To show excessive fondness or love

The term imbecile was once used by psychiatrists to denote a category of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, as well as a type of criminal. The word arises from the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded.

To be weakly or foolishly fond of somebody.

A person who is considered foolish or stupid.

To act in a foolish manner; to be senile.

A person with moderate to severe intellectual disability having a mental age of from three to seven years and generally being capable of some degree of communication and performance of simple tasks under supervision. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

(Ireland) A darling, a cutie.

(obsolete) A person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five to seven-year-old child.

(obsolete) An imbecile; a dotard.

(pejorative) A fool, an idiot.

Natural endowments.

(dated) Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; especially, mentally weak.

To act foolishly.

Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded; as, hospitals for the imbecile and insane.

To be weak-minded, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel.

One destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind; - sometimes used as a pejorative term.

To be excessively or foolishly fond; to love to excess; to be weakly affectionate; - with on or upon; as, the mother dotes on her child.

A person with a degree of mental retardation between that of an idiot and a moron; in a former classification of mentally retarded person, it applied to a person with an adult mental age of from four to eith years, and an I.Q. of from 26 to 50.

An imbecile; a dotard.

To weaken; to make imbecile; as, to imbecile men's courage.

Be foolish or senile due to old age

A person of subnormal intelligence

Shower with love; show excessive affection for;

Having a mental age of three to seven years