| 释义 |
▪ I. imperfect, a. (n.)|ɪmˈpɜːfɪkt|
Forms: α. 4–5 imparfit(e, inperfit(e, inparfit(e, -yt, 5 inperfyght, 5–7 imperfit, (5–6 -yt(e, 6 -fite, -fett). β. 6 imperfecte, 6– imperfect.
[ME. a. F. imparfait (1372 in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. imperfetto, Sp. imperfecto, Pg. imperfeito:—L. imperfectus, f. im- (im-2) + perfectus perfect. Subseq. influenced by, and, in 16th c., assimilated to, the Latin form.]
A. adj. Not perfect; the opposite of perfect.
I. Ordinary senses.
1. Wanting some part or adjunct usually present, or necessary to the full form or development; not fully formed, made, or done; unfinished, incomplete; of less than the full amount; deficient.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §18 Som of hem semen perfit cercles, & somme semen inperfit. c1440Gesta Rom. ii. xxi. 339 (Add. MS.) The child is not apte to serve god, in that he is inparfite. 1490Caxton Eneydos xiv. 49 The werkes..that were begonne..be lefte wythout eny more werkyng, alle Imperfyt. 1570Billingsley Euclid xi. Def. i. 312 A line is the imperfectest kinde of quantitie. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 667 A Snake..Leaving his Nest, and his imperfect Young. 1782Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. Pref. 19, I did not think it right to leave any of the pieces imperfect. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 92 The history of the time is too imperfect to justify a positive conclusion. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 367 Those bundles which become imperfect by disappearance of the Tracheæ.
2. Wanting some quality or attribute necessary to full efficiency, normal condition, or ideal character; not coming up to the standard; not all that it should be; defective, faulty.
c1340Hampole Prose Tr. 45 Othir saules þat ere in þis lyfe inperfite..ne had noghte þe fullhede of charite..sall haue þe lawere mede. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 305 To brynge men of more inperfyght lyfe, into y⊇ place of men more parfyght. 1502W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. vi. 200, I am imperfite of vertu & feble in loue. 1605Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 5 Your other Senses grow imperfect By your eyes anguish. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 176 He had written them in French..and withall in an imperfect and bad character. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 184 So imperfect a creature as man. 1872Ruskin Eagle's Nest §88 Ignorance..will produce what is imperfect, but not offensive.
†3. Positively faulty, vicious, evil. Obs.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 50 ‘Þanne artow inparfit’, quod he, ‘and one of prydes knyȝtes’. Ibid. 127 Prestes inparfit and prechoures after syluer. 1393Ibid. C. iv. 389 Al reson reproueþ such imparfit puple. 1611Cotgr., Vicieux,..erronious, imperfect, vnsound. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 266 Their imperfect customes of drinking.
4. Of persons in respect of imperfect or defective action or accomplishment: Not fully instructed or accomplished in.
1570Henry's Wallace xi. 1432 Blaym nocht the buk, thocht I be imperfyte [c 1470 wnperfyt]. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 70 Stay you imperfect Speakers, tell me more. 1650Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. (1658) 98 A main Reason why the Ancients were so imperfect in the Doctrine of Meteors, was their ignorance of Gunpowder and Fire-works. 1676tr. Guillatiere's Voy. Athens 221 If any of the Boys were out or imperfect, he was corrected by the next..till the whole number of words were read. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. xvii. 373 Any statesmen who forgot him in their reckoning must have been imperfect in their notion of political dynamics.
II. Technical senses.
5. Gram. Applied to a tense which denotes action going on but not completed; usually to the past tense of incomplete or progressive action (more fully called past imperfect, formerly sometimes preter-imperfect), as Gr. ἔγραϕον, L. scribēbam, F. j'écrivais, Eng. I was writing.
In the grammar of the Semitic languages, now generally applied to the ‘tense’ or verbal form with prefixed pronominal elements, sometimes called future and present.
In Slavonic Grammar, formerly sometimes used for imperfective.
1530Palsgr. 84 The preter imperfit tens, as je parloye. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Imperfect, or Preter-Imperfect Tense. 1832Pinnock L. Murray's Eng. Gram. viii. §6. 129 The Imperfect Tense represents the action or event, either as past and finished or as remaining unfinished at a certain time past. 1866Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 7) §206 Nine Primary Tenses. A. 1. The Past Imperfect, showing that at a certain past time an action was going on; as I was writing..B. 1. The Present Imperfect,..as, I am writing..C. 1. The Future Imperfect,..as, I shall be writing. 1871Roby Lat. Gram. §549 Three [tenses] denoting incomplete action; the Present, Future, and Imperfect (sometimes called respectively, present imperfect, future imperfect, past imperfect). 1892Driver Heb. Tenses (ed. 3) i, It will be better to acquiesce in the names now generally employed..and to call them by the terms perfect and imperfect respectively. Ibid. iii, The imperfect in Hebrew, as in the other Semitic languages, indicates action as nascent, as evolving itself actively from its subject, as developing.
†6. Arith.
a. Applied to a number which is not equal to the sum of its aliquot parts: opp. to perfect. (Cf. deficient A. 1 c.)
b. Applied to a power (square, cube, etc.) whose root is an incommensurable quantity: opposed to a perfect square, cube, etc. Obs.
1557Recorde Whetst. A iv b, Imperfecte nombers be suche, whose partes added together, doe make either more or lesse then the whole number it self..As 12, whose partes are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, which make 16. 1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 5 Imperfect numbers..are those whose even parts added together, will not return the Primary Number. 1706W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 114 The Roots of Imperfect Powers are Incommensurable Quantities.
7. Mus.
†a. In mediæval music, applied to a note when reckoned as twice (instead of three times) the length of a note of the next lower denomination; and hence to those ‘modes’, etc. characterized by such relative value of the notes.
b. Applied to Plain Chant melodies which do not extend through the entire compass of the mode in which they are written (Grove Dict. Mus. s.v.).
c. Sometimes applied to a diminished (as distinguished from a perfect) fourth, fifth, or triad: see diminished 4 a.
imperfect cadence: a cadence ending on some chord other than the direct chord of the tonic, usually that of the dominant, and having the effect of a partial close or stop (like that of a comma or semicolon in a sentence); also called a half-close. imperfect concords or imperfect consonances: a name given to the thirds and sixths, major and minor.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 18 The Moode Imperfect of the more prolation is, when all go by two, except the Minome which goeth by three. Ibid. 19 The Moode Imperfect of the lesse prolation is, when all go by two: as two Longes to the Large, two Breeues to the Longe, two Semibreeues to the Breefe, and two Minomes to the Semibriefe. 1667C. Simpson Compend. 40 Concords are..Perfect and Imperfect..Perfects are these, 5th, 8th with all their Octaves. Imperfects are a 3rd, 6th, and their Octaves. 1875Ouseley Harmony xiii. 156 When it is wished to make a kind of rest or division in a piece of music..it is usual to employ what is called the Imperfect cadence, or half-close. 1877Stainer Harmony xii, The most common position of the imperfect triad is its first inversion. 1880C. H. H. Parry in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 766 Mediæval writers (accustomed to look upon the number Three—the Symbol of the Blessed Trinity—as the sign of Perfection) applied the term Imperfect to all rhythmic proportions subject to the binary division... Thus, the Minim—always equal to two Crotchets only—was essentially Imperfect, in common with all other notes shorter than the Semibreve. The Large was also Imperfect, whenever it was made equal to two Longs [etc.]. Ibid. 768 An example of an Imperfect Cadence which concludes on a chord other than the Dominant. 1889E. Prout Harmony (ed. 10) i. §29 The consonant intervals are..subdivided into perfect and imperfect consonances.
8. Bot.
a. Applied to flowers in which any normal part is wanting.
Formerly, esp. to flowers having no corolla or perianth; now to those in which either stamens, or pistils, or both, are absent.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn., Imperfect Flowers of Plants are such as want the Petala: and therefore they are sometimes called Apetalous, and sometimes Stamineous. 1855Mayne Expos. Lex., Imperfectus, applied to flowers which want the anther, or pistil, or both: imperfect. 1860Lindley Sch. Bot. i. 13 An amentum or catkin is a spike consisting of imperfect flowers.
b. Of a stage in the life cycle of a fungus: not producing or not known to produce sexual organs. Of a fungus, having (apparently) no sexual stage: belonging to the group designated imperfect fungi (or formally, in mod.L., Fungi Imperfecti), in which are included all those fungi which, because a sexual stage is missing or unknown, cannot be assigned to other taxa.
1895M. C. Cooke Introd. Study Fungi xxii. 259 The group now under consideration is analogous, in external features, to the Pyrenomycetes, but wholly deficient of asci. The perithecia, or pseudoperithecia, include only stylospores, and have been assumed to be imperfect representatives, or imperfect stages or conditions, of the Pyrenomyceteae, and hence called ‘imperfect capsular fungi’. 1898Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 660 (heading) Rabenhorst's cryptogamic flora of Germany (Fungi Imperfecti). 1908Ibid. 626 Similar cultures were successfully carried through with Gnomoniella tubiformis on alder leaves, of which the ‘imperfect’ form was proved to be Leptothyrium alneum. 1952C. J. Alexopoulos Introd. Mycol. xiii. 312 A great many fungi are known which have septate mycelium and which, so far as anyone has been able to discover, reproduce only by means of conidia. Since these fungi apparently lack a sexual stage (perfect stage), we call them, commonly, ‘imperfect fungi’, and technically, Fungi Imperfecti. 1971P. H. B. Talbot Princ. Fungal Taxon. v. 77 The phase associated with asexual spores or sterile mycelia is known as the imperfect state of the fungus, while that associated with production of zygotes or of spores resulting from any type of sexual process is the perfect state.
9. Law. (See quots.)
1832Austin Jurispr. (1879) I. i. 101 An imperfect law (with the sense wherein the term is used by the Roman jurists) is a law which wants a sanction and which therefore is not binding. 1848Wharton Law Lex. 240/1 Executory trusts. In the case of articles of agreement, made in contemplation of marriage, and which are consequently preparatory to a settlement..the trusts declared by them are said to be executory or imperfect, because they require an ulterior act to raise and perfect them. [See executory a.3] 1872Ibid. (ed. 5) Imperfect obligations, moral duties, such as charity, gratitude, etc. which cannot be enforced by law.
10. imperfect induction (Philos.): a term signifying induction (see induction 7) from an incomplete set of instances, usu. used in contrast to the notion of perfect induction.
[1843Mill Logic I. iii. ii. §i. 352 The induction is asserted not to be perfect, unless every single individual of the class A is included in the antecedent.] a1856W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics & Logic (1860) III. 325 This Imperfect Induction they [sc. logicians] held in contingent matter to be contingent. 1870W. S. Jevons Elem. Lessons Logic xxv. 213 The assertion that all the planets move in one direction round the sun..is derived from Imperfect Induction; for it is possible that there exist planets more distant than the most distant-known planet Neptune. 1914C. Read Logic (ed. 4) xv. 197 Imperfect Induction..is..the method of showing the credibility of an universal real proposition by an examination of some of the instances it includes. 1957J. Passmore 100 Yrs. Philos. i. 22 Conventionally, two sorts of induction had been distinguished: perfect and imperfect... We are driven back upon ‘imperfect’ induction, as..the only sort of inductive inference.
11. imperfect competition (Econ.): competition diluted by elements of monopoly so that individual producers or consumers are able to exercise some control over the market price.
1881F. Y. Edgeworth Math. Psychics ii. 48 This condition, though not spontaneously generated by imperfect as by perfect competition, should be introduced ab extra. 1933J. Robinson (title) The economics of imperfect competition. 1937Q. Jrnl. Econ. LII. 529 ‘Imperfect competition’ is a more familiar expression in England, while the term ‘monopolistic competition’ is more familiar in the United States. 1948E. H. Chamberlin Monopolistic Competition (ed. 6) p. ix, Monopolistic Competition is a fusion of the..theories of monopoly and competition, whereas Imperfect Competition contains no monopoly. 1961Rev. Econ. Stud. XXVIII. 182 Writers on imperfect competition in the product and factor markets have paid little attention to this question. 1969D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. iv. 87 Imperfect competition, that is to say..markets where there is not either pure competition or monopoly.
B. as n.
1. Gram. The imperfect (i.e. past imperfect) tense: see A. 5 above.
1871Public Sch. Lat. Gram. §66 The Imperfect expresses: (1) Action going on in time past along with other action..(2) Action repeated or habitual in time past. 1873F. Hall Mod. Eng. 324 Who, in the next place, devised our modern imperfects passive?
†2. Mus. An imperfect concord: see 7 (quot. 1667). Obs.
3. pl. Goods of which the quality is not high enough for them to be sold to the public, except at a reduced price.
1952Amer. Speech XXVII. 264 Textile products which..do not come up to standard quality are referred to as imperfects, seconds, and run-of-the-mill. 1962E. Godfrey Retail Selling & Organization ii. x. 95 The retail buyers..buy up manufacturers' and wholesalers'..factory imperfects. 1962S. Strand Marketing Dict. 358 Imperfect, merchandise below standard... In many cases imperfects are useful products, but because of a manufacturer's flaw..they are removed from prime merchandise. 1969Observer 9 Nov. 1/8 (Advt.), ‘Imperfects’ offered at a much reduced price.
▪ II. † imˈperfect, v. Obs.
[f. prec. adj.]
trans. To render imperfect; to destroy the perfection of.
1555J. Bradford Let. in Coverdale Lett. Mart. (1564) 265, I deny transubstantiation..wherby the Masse is mainteyned, christes supper peruerted, his sacrifice & crosse imperfetted, hys priesthode destroyed. a1614Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 179 As though the body of Christ could be imperfited. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §28 Time, which perfects some Things, imperfects also others.
b. Mus. (See prec. 7 a.) Also absol.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., This pricke standing in this place doeth imperfect. 1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 54 A perfect Breefe can be imperfected, not onely by a Semibreefe..but also of two Minims. Ibid. 55 The imperfecting Note doth goe before the Note that is imperfected. |