Crossword clues for disproportion
disproportion
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disproportion \Dis`pro*por"tion\, n. [Pref. dis- + proportion: cf. F. disproportion.]
Want of proportion in form or quantity; lack of symmetry; as, the arm may be in disproportion to the body; the disproportion of the length of a building to its height.
Want of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness; disparity; as, the disproportion of strength or means to an object.
Disproportion \Dis`pro*por"tion\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Disproportioned; p. pr. & vb. n. Disproportioning.] To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness to an end; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch; to join unfitly.
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part.
--Shak.
A degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the
extent of its territory.
--Prescott.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1550s; see dis- + proportion.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The state of being out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance. 2 Lack of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness. vb. (context transitive English) To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.
WordNet
n. lack of proportion; imbalance among the parts of something [ant: symmetry]
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "disproportion".
Presbyterian Church and the Congregationalist clergy of the little colony of Connecticut seems like a disproportioned one.
It was very unpleasant to see those filthy and disproportioned animals which soon numbered about fifteen, grubbing about and making their kangaroo leaps in the grey twilight where titan towers and monoliths arose, but it was still more unpleasant when they spoke among themselves in the coughing gutturals of ghasts.
Prompt radiation, superstellar temperatures, electromagnetic pulse, thermal pulse, blast overpressure, fallout, disease, loss of immunity, cold, dark, contamination, inherited deformity, ozone depletion: with what hysterical ferocity, with what farcical disproportion, do nuclear weapons loathe human life.
Although unusual in language, this disproportion between signifier and signified is not specific to myth: in Freud, for instance, the parapraxis is a signifier whose thinness is out of proportion to the real meaning which it betrays.
There was no one available to do a C-section for disproportion, so those women died, and their pelves died with them.
Pass by, I pray thee, and take not notice of who I am, because there is, as thou very well knowest, so great a disproportion between me and thee.
Genius always suffers, for it is an acorn planted in a flowerpot - a disproportion, without the strength to carry it.
Crusaders of different nations, white turbans and long pikes, announcing the presence of armed Saracens, and the huge deformed heads of several camels or dromedaries, overlooking the multitude by aid of their long, disproportioned necks.
And here let me observe, that as the general propositions which I advance are the result of many particular and imperfect facts, I must either refer the reader to those modern authors who have expressly treated the subject, or swell these notes disproportioned size.
Though disproportioned in person, the dwarf was not so distorted as to argue any want of strength or activity.
The man's figure was short, strongly made, with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders, arms of great and disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick bandy legs.
That Richard should consent to her receiving a letter from an infidel lover by the hands of one of such disproportioned rank are either of them circumstances equally incredible, and, at the same time, inconsistent with each other.
And here let me observe, that as the general propositions which I advance are the result of many particular and imperfect facts, I must either refer the reader to those modern authors who have expressly treated the subject, or swell these notes disproportioned size.
Then the sun rose, pierced a gap in these debris of vapours, and displayed an inconsiderable islet, flat as a plate upon the sea, and spiked with palms of disproportioned altitude.
The sight of Tikei, thrown direct against the splendour of the morning, robbed of all its colour, and deformed with disproportioned trees like bristles on a broom, had scarce prepared us to be much in love with atolls.