1Having no or insufficient voluntary control over urination or defecation.
‘elderly, incontinent parents’
‘Two-hourly reminders to void may control many incontinent people, especially in the nursing home.’
‘A patient who is diabetic, receiving antibiotics or immunosuppressive therapy incontinent, or perspiring heavily faces additional risk: he or she could acquire a fungal skin infection.’
‘This covers the initial error and later events, when I went into retention a third time, lost the sensation of urination, and was doubly incontinent with diminished sensation in the genital region.’
‘He became incontinent and lost control of his bowels.’
‘Mahlati is one of many at the school who are incontinent and has no control over her bladder.’
‘The work of attending those who were vomiting, incontinent, or who had offensive wounds strained patient-family relationships.’
‘She looked very pale and was vomiting and doubly incontinent.’
‘Three quarters of the incontinent women were still incontinent six years later.’
‘Specifically, increasing physical activity and decreasing the intrusiveness of the nursing home environment at night can improve those factors in nursing home residents who are incontinent.’
‘I've got less grace than a duck with one leg, and less control than an incontinent old person on All-Bran.’
‘After six weeks of therapy, the mean number of incontinent episodes was reduced by one half in the treatment group but by only 15 percent in the control group.’
‘Eight hours after admission, she experienced increased restlessness, irritability, severe dyspnea, nausea, and vomiting, and she was incontinent of urine and feces.’
‘An overactive bladder, the second most common cause of urinary incontinence in women, affects 30% of incontinent women, the prevalence increasing with age.’
‘In addition, they were more likely to be incontinent of stool but less likely to be incontinent of urine.’
‘Curing ulcerative colitis but leaving the patient incontinent of feces does the patient a great disservice.’
‘Although overhydrated from exposure to urine or stool, perineal skin in an incontinent patient may paradoxically be described as ‘dry’ because of a deficiency of the oils seen in normal skin.’
‘However, some people with Alzheimer's never become incontinent.’
‘This last option is generally reserved for incontinent women who are terminally ill, have a pressure ulcer, or live alone with no one available to provide other options for continence control.’
‘They were classified as incontinent if they responded ‘occasionally,’ ‘often,’ or ‘always’ to any of the items.’
‘Many men afterwards find it difficult to get or keep an erection, and a minority will be incontinent.’
2Lacking self-restraint; uncontrolled.
‘the incontinent hysteria of the fans’
‘In this case ‘FU’ is a shorthand employed by party whips to describe sexually incontinent MPs who have thus far managed to keep their sordid secrets from their spouses but not the party managers.’
‘She found herself being derided as a doormat for her sexually incontinent husband.’
‘They could be sexually incontinent too, sleeping with the daughters of local civilians and seducing their men's wives.’
‘Playboys are no longer thought suave but sexually incontinent.’
Late Middle English (in incontinent (sense 2)): from Old French, or from Latin incontinent-, from in- ‘not’ + continent- ‘holding together’ (see continent). incontinent (sense 1) dates from the early 19th century.
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