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A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse. Withouten vice of syllable or letter. Chaucer. Mark the vice of the procedure. Sir W. Hamilton.

Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty; imperfect. Though I perchance am vicious in my guess. Shak. The title of these lords was vicious in its origin. Burke. A charge against Bentley of vicious reasoning. De Quincey.

Any of several fruit flies, esp. Drosophila ampelopophila, which breed in imperfectly sealed preserves and in pickles.

To make vicious, faulty, or imperfect; to render defective; to injure the substance or qualities of; to impair; to contaminate; to spoil; as, exaggeration vitiates a style of writing; sewer gas vitiates the air. A will vitiated and growth out of love with the truth disposes the understanding to error and delusion. Sout…

ition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting or imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life. Dryden.

The first and third persons singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, preterit (imperfect) tense; as, I was; he was.

The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style. See Was.

An imperfection in the wick of a candle, causing it to waste; -- called also a thief. Halliwell.

Anything cast away as bad or useless, as imperfect bricks, china, etc. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Pertaining to, or designating, a verb which forms its preterit (imperfect) and past participle by adding to the present the suffix - ed, -d, or the variant form -t; as in the verbs abash, abashed; abate, abated; deny, denied; feel, felt. See Strong, 19 (a).

imp. & p. p. of Wend; -- now obsolete except as the imperfect of go, with which it has no etymological connection. See Go. To the church both be they went. Chaucer.

The imperfect indicative plural, and imperfect subjunctive singular and plural, of the verb be. See Be.

, The second person singular, indicative and subjunctive moods, imperfect tense, of the verb be. It is formed from were, with the ending -t, after the analogy of wast. Now used only in solemn or poetic style.

Complete; entire; not defective or imperfect; not broken or fractured; unimpaired; uninjured; integral; as, a whole orange; the egg is whole; the vessel is whole. My life is yet whole in me. 2 Sam. i. 9.

al ants, bees, and white ants. The workers are generally females having the sexual organs imperfectly developed. See Ant, and White ant, under White.

Properly, a variant of the defective imperfect yode, but sometimes mistaken for a present. See the Note under Yede. [Obs.] Years yead away and faces fair deflower. Drant.