| Library / English Dictionary |
IMPERFECT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going
Synonyms:
continuous tense; imperfect; imperfect tense; progressive; progressive tense
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("imperfect" is a kind of...):
tense (a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "imperfect"):
present progressive; present progressive tense (a tense used to express action that is on-going at the time of utterance)
past progressive; past progressive tense (a progressive tense used to describe on-going action in the past)
future progressive; future progressive tense (a progressive tense used to express action that will be on-going in the future)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Wanting in moral strength, courage, or will; having the attributes of man as opposed to e.g. divine beings
Example:
frail humanity
Synonyms:
fallible; frail; imperfect; weak
Classified under:
Similar:
human (having human form or attributes as opposed to those of animals or divine beings)
Derivation:
imperfectness (the state or an instance of being imperfect)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not perfect; defective or inadequate
Example:
drainage here is imperfect
Classified under:
Similar:
blemished; flawed (having a blemish or flaw)
broken (imperfectly spoken or written)
corrupt; corrupted (containing errors or alterations)
defective; faulty (having a defect)
imperfectible (capable of being made imperfect)
irregular (failing to meet a standard of manufacture due to an imperfection)
Also:
blemished (marred by imperfections)
broken (physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split)
Attribute:
flawlessness; ne plus ultra; perfection (the state of being without a flaw or defect)
Antonym:
perfect (being complete of its kind and without defect or blemish)
Derivation:
imperfectness (the state or an instance of being imperfect)
Context examples:
The lock was silver, though tarnished from age; at each end were the imperfect remains of handles also of silver, broken perhaps prematurely by some strange violence; and, on the centre of the lid, was a mysterious cipher, in the same metal.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
It had cost her something to encounter Lady Russell's surprise; and now, if she were by any chance to be thrown into company with Captain Wentworth, her imperfect knowledge of the matter might add another shade of prejudice against him.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Such is the imperfect nature of man! such spots are there on the disc of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She gave advice, advice too sound to be resisted by a good understanding, and given so mildly and considerately as not to irritate an imperfect temper, and she had the happiness of observing its good effects not unfrequently.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Upon this imagination, he put several other questions to me, and still received rational answers: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases which I had learned at the farmer’s house, and did not suit the polite style of a court.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Far be it from us, in the present comparatively imperfect state of the resources of our establishment, to endeavour to follow our distinguished townsman through the smoothly-flowing periods of his polished and highly-ornate address!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received from his niece and her daughters.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and other ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Every day, when I waited on him, beside the trouble he was at in teaching, he would ask me several questions concerning myself, which I answered as well as I could, and by these means he had already received some general ideas, though very imperfect.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
