handicap.
Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
Meaning & usage
Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
Age is often a handicap.
An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
The older boy won, even though his opponent had been granted a handicap of five meters.
A handicap in chess often involves removal of the queen's rook.
An individual's physical or mental disadvantage or disability.
A race or similar contest in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
An old card game, similar to lanterloo.
Synonym of hand-in-cap (“old English trading game”).
Where this word comes from
From hand-in-cap, in reference to holding the game stakes in a cap.
To encumber with a handicap in any contest.
To place at disadvantage.
The candidate was handicapped by her lack of experience.
To estimate betting odds.
Grandpa Andy would buy the racing form the day ahead of time so he could handicap the race before he even arrived at the track.
Where this word comes from
From hand-in-cap, in reference to holding the game stakes in a cap.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.