IMPROPER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Improper

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/ɪmprˈɑpər/ Listen

adjective

Improper adj.

Not proper; not suitable; not fitted to the circumstances, design, or end; unfit; not becoming; incongruous; inappropriate; indecent; as, an improper medicine; improper thought, behavior, language, dress. "Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service, Improper for a slave." "And to their proper operation still, Ascribe all Good; to their improper, Ill."

Not peculiar or appropriate to individuals; general; common. (Obs.) "Not to be adorned with any art but such improper ones as nature is said to bestow, as singing and poetry."

Not according to facts; inaccurate; erroneous.

Improper diphthong. See under Diphthong.

Improper feud, an original feud, not earned by military service.

Improper fraction. See under Fraction.

verb

Improper v. t. To appropriate; to limit. (Obs.) "He would in like manner improper and inclose the sunbeams to comfort the rich and not the poor."

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Etymology of 'Improper'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Improper" Quotes from Famous Books

... Kate, "that this may be true; I do not deem it improper for me to say to you, sir, that Captain Vince made me an offer of marriage, and that in order to induce me to accept it he offered, should he come up with the Revenge, to spare my father and to let him go free, visiting the punishment he was sent to inflict upon the rest of the ...

— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton

... rate," he answered. "They would sink back into the great mass of our vulgarity, and not be noticed. We behave like a parcel of peasants with our women. We think that if no harm is meant or thought, we may risk any sort of appearance, and we do things that are scandalously improper simply because they are innocent. That may be all very well at home, but people who prefer that sort of thing had better stay there, where our peasant ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... injurious weather. Proper location of bees. Preparations for setting hives, 126. Protector should be open in Summer and banked in Winter. Cheaper than an Apiary. Summer air of Protector like forest air. In Winter uniform and mild, 127. Bees will not be enticed out in improper weather. Secures their natural heat. Dead bees, &c., to be removed in Winter. Temperature of the Protector, 128. Importance of the Protector. Its ...

— Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee - A Bee Keeper's Manual • L. L. Langstroth

... under the Government of the Union I do not conceive it expedient to call upon you for information officially, yet I have supposed that some informal communications from the Office of Foreign Affairs might neither be improper nor unprofitable. Finding myself at this moment less occupied with the duties of my office than I shall probably be at almost any time hereafter, I am desirous of employing myself in obtaining an acquaintance with the real situation of the several great Departments at the ...

— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 10. • James D. Richardson

... improper to mention ourselves, what the nature of the kindnesses is, which we confer on our poor neighbours, and the labouring people, lest it should be surmised, by any body, that we are lavishing away wealth that is not our own. Not that we fear either your honoured husband or you will suspect ...

— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

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