imperforateadj.n.
/ɪmˈpəːf(ə)rət/, U.S. /ᵻmˈpərfərət/ A. adj.
1. Medicine and Surgery. Of a part of the body, esp. the hymen or anus: lacking a normal or functional orifice or an open channel (usually as a congenital defect). Also: designating such a condition; (of a person or animal) †having such a condition (obsolete). Cf. imperforated adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > closed or shut condition > [adjective] > stopping up or blocking > having no openings > not pierced, punctured, etc.
unpierced?c1425
imperforate1657
the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > physical arrangement or condition > [adjective] > imperforated
imperforated1650
imperforate1739
1657 W. Carr tr. L. Rivière Universal Body Physick ii. §1. iv. 79 Such affections [sc. diseases in connexion] appear in luxations, when the connexion of the bones is perverted and in imperforate parts [L. in imperforatis], as also when the eye lids, or the lips, are united, which should naturally be separated.
1687 Chirurgorum Comes vi. iii. 521/1 I shall give you Aquapendent's way, who saw and cured an imperforate Maid.
1739 S. Sharp Treat. Operations Surg. xi. 53 Sometimes..children are born imperforate.
1785 Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 550/2 (table) Imperforate Anus.
1857 W. R. Bullock tr. P. Cazeaux Theoret. & Pract. Treat. Midwifery (ed. 2) 44 Sometimes the hymen forms a complete imperforate Membrane.
1872 D. C. Black On Functional Dis. Renal Organs ii. 108 Owing to the imperforate condition of the hymen, the menstrual flux accumulates in the cul de sac.
1911 Med. Fortn. 10 Aug. 314/1 If we refer to the studies of the embryologists, we find an explanation for this deficiency of the glandular urethra or imperforate glans penis.
1995 Nursing Times 22 Mar. 19 (advt.) Do not use in patients with congenital megacolon, Hirschsprung's Disease, imperforate anus or congestive heart failure.
2007 Guardian (Nexis) 6 Sept. (G2 section) 17 You may have a thick and imperforate hymen, so consult your gynaecologist about a minor surgical procedure.
2.
a. Lacking a hole or holes; not pierced with a hole or holes.
ΚΠ
1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 200 One of these Glass-bubbles was perforated with a little hole on the heavier side... The other glass-bubble is imperforate.
1771 W. Newton in tr. Vitruvius Archit. iii. 65 Those [simæ] which are over the columns are to be perforated, for a channel to convey the rain-water from the tiles; but those which are between are imperforate.
1877 L. Jewitt Half-hours among Eng. Antiq. 180 The use of these large imperforate beads..remains a mystery.
1889 U.S. Patent 406,559 1/1 After the caustic soda has been allowed to act for about twenty-four hours the resulting alkalied starch-milk is introduced into the imperforate drum.
1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. ii. 74 The asymmetrical imperforate hand-adze or chisel is, in one form or another, a thoroughly familiar ingredient in Neolithic cultures.
1993 E. N. K. Clarkson Invertebr. Palaeontol. & Evol. (ed. 3) iv. 91/2 These include radial rods, perforate transverse plates (tabulae) and imperforate arched plates (dissepiments).
2004 E. Flügel Microfacies Carbonate Rocks x. 556/2 The concave articulation surface that attaches onto the mamelon of the tubercle is the acetabulum which may be either perforate or imperforate.
b. Conchology. Of a coiled shell: lacking an umbilicus (rounded hollow in the base of the shell); not umbilicated. Cf. perforated adj. 1e.
ΚΠ
1802 E. Donovan Nat. Hist. Brit. Shells IV. Pl. CXXXI Helix Hortensis. Garden Snail... Shell imperforate, globose; spotted and fasciated with brown: lip white.
1851 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca i. 100 The whirls are closely coiled, leaving only a pillar of shell, or columella, in the centre; such shells are said to be imperforate.
1899 H. A. Pilsbry Man. Conchol. XII. 153 Shell imperforate, solid, obliquely irregularly rugulate, spirally sulcate.
1920 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 72 375 It [sc. Epitonium kanemoe] is very slender, imperforate, white, with sculpture of slender, recurved ribs.
1961 J. Stubblefield Davies's Introd. Palaeontol. (ed. 3) iii. 81 Among Neritacea (Dev.—Rec.) is Nerita (Jur.—Rec.), globose, imperforate with semicircular aperture and thick, often grooved, lips.
2010 J. W. Tunnell et al. Encycl. Texas Seashells 163/1 Truncatellids are semiterrestrial to terrestrial snails with cylindrical, truncate, high-spired, and imperforate shells.
3. Philately. Of a postage stamp: taken from a sheet in which the individual stamps are not separated by rows of perforations, and hence not having perforated edges; (of a sheet of stamps) lacking perforations. Cf. imperforated adj. 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [adjective] > perforated > not
imperforate1868
imperforated1868
imperf.1869
1868 Routledge's Mag. for Boys Nov. 9/2 The original stock of imperforate sixpenny stamps of this island [sc. St Helena] having at last become exhausted, the perforated sheets are now in use.
1893 Daily News 28 July 5/2 Fine copies of the Canadian sixpenny [postage-stamp] ‘imperforate’.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvii. [Ithaca] 670 Valuable adhesive or unpressed postage stamps (7 shilling, mauve, imperforate, Hamburg, 1866: 4 pence, rose, blue paper, perforate, Great Britain, 1855 [etc.]).
1957 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 715 b/1 A number of sheets of the imperforate 5-cent carmine error.
2012 Stamp Mag. Nov. 14/1 Despite being issued imperforate..and with no country name, they were postally valid in the Russian Zone.
B. n.
Philately. An imperforate postage stamp (see sense A. 3).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [noun] > postage stamp > types of
black1863
penny black1863
local1865
error1866
toadskin1867
fiscal1869
imperforate1874
tête-bêche1874
halfpenny1881
provisional1885
British colonial1902
precancel1903
definitive1929
airmail1930
pictorial1934
perfin1945
1874 Stamp-collector's Mag. 12 43/2 The Roman type is the characteristic of the imperforates.
1939 A. Powell What's become of Waring? viii. 245 I shall want some of the imperforates, and the 1867 issue with the grille are all splendid specimens.
1977 Washington Post 3 Apr. l15/4 A used copy of the 1-cent blue imperforate of 1851..was sold for $13,000.
2002 S. R. Datz Catal. Errors U.S. Postage Stamps 2003 82/1 Beware tagged used singles trimmed to resemble imperforates.
Compounds
imperforate St John's-wort n. any of several plants of the genus Hypericum that have leaves with few or no translucent glandular dots (cf. perforated adj. 1d); spec. the perennial herbaceous species H. maculatum, of Europe; cf. perforate St John's-wort n. at perforate adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1695 in E. Gibson tr. W. Camden Britannia 251/1 Ascyron seu Hypericum bifolium glabrum non perforatum C. B. Elegant broad-leav'd imperforate S. John's-wort.
1848 J. M. Wilson Rural Cycl. II. 788/1 The doubtful or imperforate St. John's wort, Hypericum dubium..is a perennial-rooted indigenous herb of the moist groves and thickets of some of the mountainous parts of Britain.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 115/2 Imperforate St John's-wort, H. maculatum, is a similar species but lacks the translucent dots, and prefers damp sites in hilly areas.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.n.1657