Im·pěr'fect1, a.
(14), a. [Prefix im, not, and perfect; Lat. imperfectus, Sp. imperfecto, Fr. imparfait.]
Sense 1. Not perfect or complete in all its parts; wanting a part; defective in quantity or quality.
Sense 2. Wanting in some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
He stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person. Bp. Taylor.
Sense 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.
Sense 4. Marked by, or subject to, defects or evil.
There is something in melancholy feelings more natural to an imperfect and suffering state than in those of gayety. W. Scott.
Sense 5. (Mus.) Not containing the full complement of simple sounds; — said of compound intervals.
Imperfect chord (Mus.), an incomplete chord, or one not including all its accessory sounds. Moore.—Imperfect flower (Bot.), a flower wanting either stamens or pistils. Gray.—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 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 (Gram.), a tense expressing an action in time past, then present, but not finished.