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right and glaring colors, the vulgar admire it is an excellent piece. I. Watts. A lame, imperfect piece, rudely daubed over. Dryden.

s are still so called, even when, by artificial methods, they have been taught to speak imperfectly.

To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth ac…

The act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline. "The declination of monarchy." Bacon. Summer . . . is not looked on as a time Of declination or decay. Waller.

To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. An…

Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. Davies.

Deficiency; imperfection. [R.] Ld. Digby. Jer. Taylor.

Liable to defect; imperfect. [R.] "A defectible understanding." Jer. Taylor.

Having defects; imperfect. [Obs.] "Some one defectious piece." Sir P. Sidney.

Wanting in something; incomplete; lacking a part; deficient; imperfect; faulty; -- applied either to natural or moral qualities; as, a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or account; a defective character; defective rules.

Great imperfection. [Obs.] W. Montagu.

Full of defects; imperfect. [Obs.] Barrow.

Same as Deficiency. Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee Is no deficience found. Milton.

The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiencyof blood." Arbuthnot. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle. Deficiency of a curve (Geom.), the amount by which the number of double point…

completeness; wanting, as regards a requirement; not sufficient; inadequate; defective; imperfect; incomplete; lacking; as, deficient parts; deficient estate; deficient strength; deficient in judgment. The style was indeed deficient in ease and variety. Macaulay. Deficient number. (Arith.) See under Abundant. -- De*fi…

To render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor. Above those passions that this world deform. Thomson.

as, the deity of the Supreme Being is seen in his works. They declared with emphasis the perfect deity and the perfect manhood of Christ. Milman.

r might. Spenser. Whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. Bacon.

An imperfect or half cadence, falling on the dominant instead of on the key note.

Separate; unconnected, or imperfectly connected; as, detached parcels. "Extensive and detached empire." Burke. Detached escapement. See Escapement.