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Imperfect   /ɪmpˈərfɪkt/   Listen
adjective
Imperfect  adj.  
1.
Not perfect; not complete in all its parts; wanting a part; deective; deficient. "Something he left imperfect in the state." "Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect."
2.
Wanting in some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity. "He... stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person."
3.
Not fulfilling its design; not realizing an ideal; not conformed to a standard or rule; not satisfying the taste or conscience; esthetically or morally defective. "Nothing imperfect or deficient left Of all that he created." "Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought."
Imperfect arch, an arch of less than a semicircle; a skew arch.
Imperfect cadence (Mus.), one not ending with the tonic, but with the dominant or some other chord; one not giving complete rest; a half close.
Imperfect consonances (Mus.), chords like the third and sixth, whose ratios are less simple than those of the fifth and forth.
Imperfect flower (Bot.), a flower wanting either stamens or pistils.
Imperfect interval (Mus.), one a semitone less than perfect; as, an imperfect fifth.
Imperfect number (Math.), a number either greater or less than the sum of its several divisors; in the former case, it is called also a defective number; in the latter, an abundant number.
Imperfect obligations (Law), obligations as of charity or gratitude, which cannot be enforced by law.
Imperfect power (Math.), a number which can not be produced by taking any whole number or vulgar fraction, as a factor, the number of times indicated by the power; thus, 9 is a perfect square, but an imperfect cube.
Imperfect tense (Gram.), a tense expressing past time and incomplete action.



noun
Imperfect  n.  (Gram.) The imperfect tense; or the form of a verb denoting the imperfect tense.



verb
Imperfect  v. t.  To make imperfect. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Imperfect" Quotes from Famous Books



... as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy

... even vivisection. The original writings of the chief men of this school have not been preserved, but there is a possibility that any day a papyrus maybe found which will supplement the scrappy and imperfect knowledge afforded us by Pliny, Celsus and Galen. The two most distinguished names are Herophilus—who, Pliny says, has the honor of being the first physician "who searched into the ...
— The Evolution of Modern Medicine • William Osler

... that you have discovered anything worth printing in the British Museum. Doubtless, if you think it worth printing, others will do the same, and it is not our fault, if it be dull or an imperfect work. I transcribed page after page of what would have been worth little if genuine, and not being genuine, is worth nothing. This refers only to the local antiquities, and false deeds of gift, &c. I made a catalogue, and left it with you. ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle

... taste also for mechanics. He conceived the idea of making a timepiece, a clock, and about the year 1770 constructed one. With his imperfect tools, and with no other model than a borrowed watch, it had cost him long and patient labor to perfect it, to make the variation necessary to cause it to strike the hours, and produce a concert of correct action between the hour, the minute, and the second machinery. He confessed that its regularity ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... other motions; crossed and thwarted, eclipsed and disguised, by counter-motions in man himself, and by disturbances that man cannot overrule. Upon lines that are direct, upon curves that are circuitous, Christianity is advancing for ever; but from our imperfect vision, or from our imperfect opportunities for applying even such a vision, we cannot trace it continuously. We lose it, we regain it; we see it doubtfully, we see it interruptedly; we see it in collision, we see it in combination; ...
— Theological Essays and Other Papers v1 • Thomas de Quincey


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