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From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 dis·a·bil·i·ty n.; pl. Disabilities
 1. State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like.
    Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted.   --Milton.
    Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability.   --Bancroft.
 2. Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency.
    The disabilities of idiocy, infancy, and coverture.   --Abbott.
 Syn: -- Weakness; inability; incompetence; impotence; incapacity; incompetency; disqualification.
 Usage: -- Disability, Inability. Inability is an inherent want of power to perform the thing in question; disability arises from some deprivation or loss of the needed competency. One who becomes deranged is under a disability of holding his estate; and one who is made a judge, of deciding in his own case. A man may decline an office on account of his inability to discharge its duties; he may refuse to accept a trust or employment on account of some disability prevents him from entering into such engagements.