Search the Dictionary

The crash or concussion attending the breaking up of masses of ice, -- often due to contraction from extreme cold.

Tending to illuminate or illustrate; throwing light; illustrative. "Illuminative reading." Carlyle.

Deceiving, or tending of deceive; fallacious; illusive; as, illusory promises or hopes.

Tending or designed to illustrate, exemplify, or elucidate.

Extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition; indefinitely ancient; as, existing from time immemorial. "Immemorial elms." Tennyson. "Immemorial usage or custom." Sir M. Hale. Time immemorial (Eng. Law.), a time antedating (legal) history, and beyond "legal memory" so called; formerly an indefinite time, b…

That which is imminent; impending evil or danger. "But dare all imminence." Shak.

Threatening to occur immediately; near at hand; impending; -- said especially of misfortune or peril. "In danger imminent." Spenser.

The act of immitting, or of sending or thrusting in; injection; -- the correlative of emission.

The quality or state of being immortal; exemption from death and annihilation; unending existance; as, the immortality of the soul. This mortal must put on immortality. 1 Cor. xv. 53.

The state of impending; also, that which impends. "Impendence of volcanic cloud." Ruskin.

Impending; threatening. Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall. Milton.

ch, an arch of less than a semicircle; a skew arch. -- Imperfect cadence (Mus.), one not ending with the tonic, but with the dominant or some other chord; one not giving complete rest; a half close. -- Imperfect consonances (Mus.), chords like the third and sixth, whose ratios are less simple than those of the fifth…

Contrary to, or offending against, the rules of propriety or good breeding; guilty of, or prone to, rude, unbecoming, or uncivil words or actions; as, an impertient coxcomb; an impertient remark.

Of the nature of impetration; getting, or tending to get, by entreaty. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

The act or process of grafting or mending. [Archaic]

Tending to implicate.

Making, or tending to make, an impression; having power to impress; adapted to excite attention and feeling, to touch the sensibilities, or affect the conscience; as, an impressive discourse; an impressive scene.

Implying, or tending to, improbation.

Tending to improve, beneficial; growing better. -- Im*prov"ing*ly, adv. Improving lease (Scots Law), an extend lease to induce the tenant to make improvements on the premises.

Not cautious; not circumspect; not attending to the circumstances on which safety and interest depend; heedless; careless; as, an incautious step; an incautious remark.