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indefinite |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Indefinite \In*def"i*nite\, a. [L. indefinitus See {In-} not and {Definite}.] 1. Not definite; not limited, defined, or specified; not explicit; not determined or fixed upon not precise; uncertain; vague; confused; obscure; as an indefinite time, plan etc It were to be wished that . . . men would leave off that indefinite way of vouching, ``the chymists say this,'' or ``the chymists affirm that.'' --Boyle. The time of this last is left indefinite. --Dryden. 2. Having no determined or certain limits; large and unmeasured, though not infinite; unlimited; as indefinite space; the indefinite extension of a straight line Though it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; though it is not boundless in itself it may be so to human comprehension. --Spectator. 3. Boundless; infinite. [R.] Indefinite and omnipresent God, Inhabiting eternity. --W. Thompson (1745). 4. (Bot.) Too numerous or variable to make a particular enumeration important; -- said of the parts of a flower, and the like Also indeterminate. {Indefinite article} (Gram.), the word a or an used with nouns to denote any one of a common or general class. {Indefinite inflorescence}. (Bot.) See {Indeterminate inflorescence}, under {Indeterminate}. {Indefinite proposition} (Logic), a statement whose subject is a common term, with nothing to indicate distribution or nondistribution as Man is mortal. {Indefinite term} (Logic), a negative term; as the not-good. Syn: Inexplicit; vague; uncertain; unsettled; indeterminate; loose; equivocal; inexact; approximate. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: indefinite adj 1: vague or not clearly defined or stated; "must you be so indefinite?"; "amorphous blots of color having vague and indefinite edges"; "he would not answer so indefinite a proposal" [ant: {definite}] 2: not decided or not known "were indefinite about their plans"; "plans are indefinite"
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