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Imperfect tense   /ɪmpˈərfɪkt tɛns/   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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Imperfect tense" Quotes from Famous Books



... that this verb and dormiebat below are in the imperfect tense to denote a state of things existing at the past ...
— Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles - A First Latin Reader • John Kirtland, ed.

... this verb and dormibat below are in the imperfect tense to denote a state of things existing at the past time indicated ...
— Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles - A First Latin Reader • John Kirtland, ed.

... learned the difference between the present and past tense of the verb. And here her simplicity rebukes the clumsy irregularities of our language. She learned jump, jumped—walk, walked, etc., until she had an idea of the mode of forming the imperfect tense of regular verbs; but when she came to the word see, she insisted that it should be seed in the imperfect; and upon going down to dinner, she asked if it was eat, eated; but being told it was eat, ATE, she seemed ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew



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