DISABILITY, noun [from disable.] 1. Want of competent natural or bodily power, strength or ability; weakness; impotence; as disability arising from infirmity or broken limbs. 2. Want of competent intellectual power or strength of mind; incapacity; as the disability of a deranged person to reason or to make contracts. 3. Want of competent means or instruments. [In this sense, inability is generally used.] 4. Want of legal qualifications; incapacity; as a disability to inherit an estate, when the ancestor has been attainted. [In this sense, it has a plural.] DISABILITY differs from inability, in denoting deprivation of ability; whereas inability denotes destitution of ability, either by deprivation or otherwise.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI