unpreciselyadv.
/ˌʌnprᵻˈsʌɪsli/, U.S. /ˌənprəˈsaɪsli/ In an imprecise manner.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > inaccuracy, inexactness > [adverb]
at rebours?a1400
unjustlyc1425
wrongly1633
outa1641
inaccurately1669
unaccurately1674
uncorrectly1706
unprecisely1806
inexactly1849
à rebours1895
1806 tr. F. von Gentz Fragments Balance of Power Europe iv. 119 Hungary..composes not much less than one half of a monarchy which has been usually, though most unprecisely, denominated absolute.
1905 Harper's Weekly 2 Sept. 1258/1 It never occurs to him to speak unprecisely.
2012 M. Schill-Fendl in S. Mallory-Hill et al. Enhancing Building Performance xvi. 196 Setting the goals is carried out..as unprecisely as possible to give architects the creative freedom they need.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adv.1806