DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Ca·dence n.
 1. The act or state of declining or sinking. [Obs.]
    Now was the sun in western cadence low.   --Milton.
 2. A fall of the voice in reading or speaking, especially at the end of a sentence.
 3. A rhythmical modulation of the voice or of any sound; as, music of bells in cadence sweet.
 Blustering winds, which all night long
 Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
 Seafaring men o'erwatched.   --Milton.
    The accents . . . were in passion's tenderest cadence.   --Sir W. Scott.
 4. Rhythmical flow of language, in prose or verse.
    Golden cadence of poesy.   --Shak.
    If in any composition much attention was paid to the flow of the rhythm, it was said (at least in the 14th and 15th centuries) to be =\“prosed in faire cadence.”\=   --Dr. Guest.
 5. Her. See Cadency.
 6. Man. Harmony and proportion in motions, as of a well-managed horse.
 7. Mil. A uniform time and place in marching.
 8. Mus. (a) The close or fall of a strain; the point of rest, commonly reached by the immediate succession of the tonic to the dominant chord. (b) A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy.
 Imperfect cadence. Mus. See under Imperfect.

 Im·per·fect a.
 1. Not perfect; not complete in all its parts; wanting a part; deective; deficient.
    Something he left imperfect in the state.   --Shak.
    Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect.   --Shak.
 2. Wanting in some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
    He . . . stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.   --Jer. Taylor.
 3. Not fulfilling its design; not realizing an ideal; not conformed to a standard or rule; not satisfying the taste or conscience; esthetically or morally defective.
 Nothing imperfect or deficient left
 Of all that he created.   --Milton.
 Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault;
 Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.   --Pope.
 Imperfect arch, 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 and forth.
 Imperfect flower Bot., a flower wanting either stamens or pistils. --Gray.
 Imperfect interval Mus., one a semitone less than perfect; as, an imperfect fifth.
 Imperfect number Math., a number either greater or less than the sum of its several divisors; in the former case, it is called also a defective number; in the latter, an abundant number.
 Imperfect obligations Law, obligations as of charity or gratitude, which cannot be enforced by law.
 Imperfect power Math., a number which can not be produced by taking any whole number or vulgar fraction, as a factor, the number of times indicated by the power; thus, 9 is a perfect square, but an imperfect cube.
 Imperfect tense Gram., a tense expressing past time and incomplete action.