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.