All 21 Uses
competent
in
Lonesome Dove
(Auto-generated)
- The old man had been a competent Mexican bandit before he ran out of steam and crossed the river.†
Chpt 1-2 *competent = sufficiently capable
- Lorena was competent—Tinkersley had taught her a little.†
Chpt 3-4
- It was an old trick of theirs, trying to make him feel incompetent—as if a man was incompetent because he couldn't see in the dark, or identify a local horse by the sound of its trot.†
Chpt 11-12incompetent = not sufficiently capablestandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- It was an old trick of theirs, trying to make him feel incompetent—as if a man was incompetent because he couldn't see in the dark, or identify a local horse by the sound of its trot.†
Chpt 11-12
- "No, but we can dig potatoes," Allen said—he didn't want the man to think they were totally incompetent.†
Chpt 13-14
- Once the Irishmen had got fairly competent at mounting and dismounting, Augustus gave them each a Winchester and made them shoot at a cactus a time or two.†
Chpt 13-14competent = sufficiently capable
- Not that Gus wasn't competent—so far as sheer ability went, Gus was as competent as any man he'd ever known.†
Chpt 15-16
- Not that Gus wasn't competent—so far as sheer ability went, Gus was as competent as any man he'd ever known.†
Chpt 15-16
- By the time more competent men arrived the Irishmen had gotten over their fear of horses and worked with a will.†
Chpt 17-18
- "No competent bandit would waste a bullet on you or Bol either," Augustus said.†
Chpt 40-41
- His wasp stings were paining him and he didn't feel he could make a competent decision when he could only see out of one eye.†
Chpt 42-43
- He had seen highly competent men stand as if paralyzed in a crisis, though once someone took command and told them what to do they might perform splendidly.†
Chpt 44-45
- It seemed to him that the last man had been an incompetent horsethief named Webster Witter, who had rustled horses in the Blanco country at one time.†
Chpt 54-55incompetent = not sufficiently capablestandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- If they disobeyed him, he beat them—Clara had often turned her back in disgust from the sight of her husband beating a horse, for she knew it was his incompetence, not the horse's, that was to blame for whatever incident had provoked the beating.†
Chpt 75-76incompetence = inability to do things sufficientlystandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Cholo was not much like an English gentleman, but it was his gentleness and skill with horses, in contrast to Bob's incompetence, that made her want badly to encourage him to stay with them.†
Chpt 75-76
- He had once felt competent being a sheriff—maybe if he went back and stuck to it he would someday feel competent again.†
Chpt 81-82competent = sufficiently capable
- He had once felt competent being a sheriff—maybe if he went back and stuck to it he would someday feel competent again.†
Chpt 81-82
- He knew Deets was a great deal more competent than he was in many areas—tracking, for example.†
Chpt 89-90
- He decided to take only Augustus and Deets, though that left the camp without a really competent Indian fighter, in case the raid was a feint.†
Chpt 89-90
- Though most of the hands were disgraceful, rude and incompetent, they were still his companeros.†
Chpt 97-98incompetent = not sufficiently capablestandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Part of it was that Dish was twice as competent with horses as he was himself, and everyone immediately recognized Dish's value.†
Chpt 99-100competent = sufficiently capable
Definitions:
-
(1)
(competent) capable (able to do something in a generally satisfactory manner) -- sometimes specifically to have legal capability
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) In the field of law, competent has the specialized meaning of being legally qualified to do something such as to be mentally fit to make reasonable decisions; or to have jurisdiction or authority to take an action.
In classic literature, a competency can refer to having an income or assets to support living expenses.