IMPROPER • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Improper

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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."

See images of 'Improper'

Etymology of 'Improper'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Improper" Quotes from Famous Books

... in six days," replied the dean, with a threatening accent; "and if I find things have taken a new and improper turn, I will be the first ...

— Nature and Art • Mrs. Inchbald

... deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and endangers the existence of a multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the area; air and water pollution in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large cities; land degradation and water pollution caused by improper mining activities ...

— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... she went with the cheerfulness of a child. I must rig up a sitting-room for her, as I cannot have her in here. Also for the present she must take her meals in her own apartments. I cannot shock the admirable Stenson by sitting down at table with her in that improper peignoir. Besides, as Antoinette informs me, the poor lamb eats meat with her fingers, after the fashion of the East. I know what that is, having once been present at an Egyptian dinner-party in Cairo, and pulled reeking lumps of flesh out of the leg of mutton. Ugh! But as she has probably ...

— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... themselves be roughly divided into two categories: bills which it would have been proper to pass, and those that it would not have been proper to pass. Some of the bills aimed at corporations were utterly wild and improper; and of these a proportion might be introduced by honest and foolish zealots, whereas most of them were introduced by men who had not the slightest intention of passing them, but who wished to be paid not to pass them. The most profitable type of bill to the accomplished blackmailer, however, ...

— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... intend taking advice from anybody. In other ways, too, her behavior at table was ridiculously stuck up. Mme Lerat having made some sharp little speech or other, she loudly announced that, God willing, she wasn't going to let anyone—no, not even her own aunt—make improper remarks in her presence. After which she dreed her guests with honorable sentiments. She seemed to be suffering from a fit of stupid right-mindedness, and she treated them all to projects of religious ...

— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

More quotes...