impair

«impair» in Mova's school dictionary: To damage something or make it weaker or worse, as in… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (impair, impairs, impaired, impairing)

meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) To damage something or make it weaker or worse, as in «Loud noise can impair your hearing». tree →

2) «impaired» (adjective) — weakened, as in «hearing impaired» or «visually impaired». tree →

sense in the lessons

In health and safety lessons: loud music, smoke or lack of sleep can impair hearing, breathing or thinking. In everyday life «visually impaired» is a polite way to say someone has poor eyesight. Phrases: impair your hearing, impaired vision.

examples

• Very loud music can impair your hearing. tree →
• Being tired can impair your concentration. tree →
• Smoke impairs your lungs. tree →
• Our neighbour is visually impaired and has a guide dog. tree →
• The fog impaired the driver's view. tree →
• Drugs can impair your judgement. tree →

note

Formal; everyday words: damage, weaken, harm. Noun: impairment. «Hearing impaired» and «visually impaired» are respectful terms. Do not confuse with «a pair» or «repair» (to fix).

In the corpora

• "Visually impaired" means partly or fully blind; it is the official term.
• Yea, thou doest away with fear, and impairest devotion before God.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «impair» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.