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Not competent; wanting in adequate strength, power, capacity, means, qualifications, or the like; incapable; unable; inadequate; unfit. Incompetent to perform the duties of the place. Macaulay.

Wanting any of the usual floral organs; -- said of a flower. Incomplete equation (Alg.), an equation some of whose terms are wanting; or one in which the coefficient of some one or more of the powers of the unknown quantity is equal to 0.

Not delicate; wanting delicacy; offensive to good manners, or to purity of mind; coarse; rude; as, an indelicate word or suggestion; indelicate behavior. Macaulay. -- In*del"i*cate*ly, adv.

Wanting; void; free; destitute; -- used with of. [Obs.] Bacon.

Not discreet; wanting in discretion. So drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Shak.

Not discriminate; wanting discrimination; undistinguishing; not making any distinction; confused; promiscuous. "Blind or indiscriminate forgiveness." I. Taylor. The indiscriminate defense of right and wrong. Junius. -- In`dis*crim"i*nate*ly, adv. Cowper.

Not elegant; deficient in beauty, polish, refinement, grave, or ornament; wanting in anything which correct taste requires. What order so contrived as not to mix Tastes, not well joined, inelegant. Milton. It renders style often obscure, always embarrassed and inelegant. Blair.

Not judicious; wanting in sound judgment; undiscerning; indiscreet; unwise; as, an injudicious adviser. An injudicious biographer who undertook to be his editor and the protector of his memory. A. Murphy.

on into facts or principles; research; invextigation; as, physical inquiries. All that is wanting to the perfection of this art will undoubtedly be found, if able men . . . will make inquiry into it. Dryden. Court of inquiry. See under Court. -- Writ of inquiry, a writ issued in certain actions at law, where the defen…

Wanting sensibility; destitute of sense; stupid; foolish. The silence and the calm Of mute, insensate things. Wordsworth. The meddling folly or insensate ambition of statesmen. Buckle. -- In*sen"sate*ly, adv. -- In*sen"sate*ness, n.

Destitute of the power of feeling or perceiving; wanting bodily sensibility. Milton.

Not sensitive; wanting sensation, or wanting acute sensibility. Tillotson. Ruskin.

Wanting in the qualities which affect the organs of taste; without taste or savor; vapid; tasteless; as, insipid drink or food. Boyle.

Wanting wisdom; stupid; foolish. [R.] Clarendon. -- n.

Wanting in strength, power, ability, capacity, or skill; incompetent; incapable; unfit; as, a person insufficient to discharge the duties of an office.

Wanting health; valetudinary. [R.]

these organs had deceptious functions. Shak. Such reasoning falls like an inverted cone, Wanting its proper base to stand upon. Cowper.

p and strike the beam; -- said of the lighter arm of a loaded balance; hence, to be found wanting in weight. Milton. -- To kick the bucket, to lose one's life; to die. [Colloq. & Low]

To be wanting; often, impersonally, with of, meaning, to be less than, short, not quite, etc. What hour now I think it lacks of twelve. Shak. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty. Gen. xvii. 28.

Wanting luster or brightness. "Lackluster eye." Shak.