01 a. Not perfect; not complete in all its parts; wanting a part; deective; deficient.
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2.
Wanting in some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.“He . . . stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.” — Jer. Taylor.
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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.” — Milton.“Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.” — Pope.
Phrases & compounds
Imperfect arch —
an arch of less than a semicircle; a skew arch.
Imperfect cadence —
one not ending with the tonic, but with the dominant or some other chord; one not giving complete rest; a half close.
Imperfect consonances —
chords like the third and sixth, whose ratios are less simple than those of the fifth and forth.
Imperfect flower —
a flower wanting either stamens or pistils.
Imperfect interval —
one a semitone less than perfect; as, an imperfect fifth.
Imperfect number —
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 —
obligations as of charity or gratitude, which cannot be enforced by law.
Imperfect power —
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 —
a tense expressing past time and incomplete action.