Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IN-CA-PAC'I-TY, n. [in and capacity.]

1. Want of capacity, intellectual power, or the power of reeciving, containing or understanding; applied to the mind, and it may be natural or casual. There is a natural incapacity in children to comprehend difficult propositions in logic or metaphysics, and a natural incapacity of men to comprehend the nature of spiritual beings. The defect of understanding proceeding from intoxication, or from an injury done to the brain, is a casual incapacity.
2. Want of qualification or legal requisites; inability; as, the incapacity of minors to make binding contracts.
3. Disqualification; disability by deprivation of power; as, the incapacity of a convict to give testimony in a court of law.