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Improperly   /ɪmprˈɑpərli/   Listen
Improperly

adverb
1.
In an improper way.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Improperly" Quotes from Famous Books



... to stifle than to promote inquiry. It is therefore unnecessary to enumerate the catalogue of illustrious names whose contradictory systems have created suspicion and distaste in the student. The science that has been improperly termed Metaphysics, ought to be considered a branch of human physiology, not abstracted from, but in this state of existence, connected with the phenomena of life. The citations on the reverse of the Title-page, to which ...
— On the Nature of Thought - or, The act of thinking and its connexion with a perspicuous sentence • John Haslam

... things of the soul are prior to the things of the body. In other words, opinion, attention, mind, art, law, are prior to sensible qualities; and the first and greater works of creation are the results of art and mind, whereas the works of nature, as they are improperly termed, are secondary and subsequent. 'Why do you say "improperly"?' Because when they speak of nature they seem to mean the first creative power. But if the soul is first, and not fire and air, then the soul above all things may be said to exist by nature. And this can only ...
— Laws • Plato

... to be the "Transit," very improperly named, being one of the slowest on that station. We found it very small and the deck entirely covered with hampers of cherries and cucumbers, and the interior ...
— A Journey in Russia in 1858 • Robert Heywood

... cannot with any prospect of safety to their Reputations, venture upon the Embraces of a Man, though they are never so strongly enclin'd. The unnatural Pleasures of this kind are finely illustrated in the following Song, written by Mr. ROWE, which I take it will not be improperly inserted in ...
— Tractus de Hermaphrodites • Giles Jacob

... procuring what was considered competent witnesses to prove them free. No complaint of improper conduct had been made against either of them. At one time, the Recorder said the witness must be white; at another, that one respectable witness was insufficient; at another, that a person who had been (improperly) confined and released, was not a competent witness, &c. &c. Lonnon has been employed in the South Sea fishery from Nantucket and New Bedford, nearly all his life; has sailed on those voyages in the ships Eagle, ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... and as I had met at dinner most of the magistrates on the Bench, I did not much like the idea of making my first public appearance before them as a friend of the gentleman in the dock, who had improperly appropriated ...
— The Bushman - Life in a New Country • Edward Wilson Landor

... hickory, chestnut and black walnut were planted in sand and watered at intervals with a 1 to 10,000 solution of potassium permanganate. In the course of time the majority of cuttings came out in leaf, but none formed roots, and hence soon died. It is admitted that this experiment may have been improperly planned and conducted, but it showed at any rate that it is not an easy matter to propagate most nut plants by ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting • Various

... just what they sought. The white flag was at once brought to the deck where it was bent on to the halliards. It fluttered gaily at the top of the short flagstaff. Some difficulty was experienced in securing the staff because of an improperly fitting socket. ...
— Boy Scouts in the North Sea - The Mystery of a Sub • G. Harvey Ralphson

... 173). To these evils was added that of gross deception, for a bad clergy used bad weapons; false miracles abounded in every direction; "the corrupt discipline that then prevailed admitted of those fallacious stratagems, which are very improperly called pious frauds; nor did the heralds of the gospel think it at all unlawful to terrify or to allure to the profession of Christianity, by fictitious prodigies, those obdurate hearts which they could not subdue by reason and argument" (p. 171). The wealth ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant

... have the power of making the laws to suit their purposes. I am confident that my blood will rise a hundredfold against the tyrants who think proper to commit such an outrage. In the first place, I say I was identified improperly, by having chains on my hands and feet at the time of identification, and thus the witnesses who have sworn to my throwing stones and firing a pistol have sworn to what is false, for I was, as those ...
— The Dock and the Scaffold • Unknown

... hand sent from the United States, while mine was managed by English laborers of the lower class, who were total strangers to it, and had never seen it in operation. The trial was made in unripe wheat on a rainy day. My machine was very improperly adjusted for the work and wrongly put together, in consequence of which the ignorant raker failed to deliver the sheaves, and it stopped as a matter of course, and was immediately laid aside, after cutting but a few feet. My machine was never tried in presence of that Jury by any other hands, or ...
— Obed Hussey - Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap • Various

... a wire improperly, a loud twang will ring out on the night air like the snapping of a banjo string. Perhaps this noise can be heard only for fifty or seventy-five yards, but in Tommy's mind it makes a ...
— Over The Top • Arthur Guy Empey

... signed in the cabin of the Mayflower, and a series of laws or orders passed either separately or together by the court which drafted them. This court was a lawmaking body and it made public the laws when they were passed. That this body of laws or, as we may not improperly call it, this frame of government was ratified, as Trumbull says, by all the free planters assembled at Hartford on January 14, 1639, is not impossible, though such action would seem unnecessary as the court ...
— The Fathers of New England - A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths • Charles M. Andrews

... times as much. And this is a good simile, because the perfect little house may be represented by a corner cut from precisely the same stone and differing therefore merely in size (and value naturally), whereas the house in bad taste and improperly run may be represented by a diamond that is off color and full of flaws; or in some instances, merely a piece of glass that to none but those as ignorant as its owner, for a moment suggests a ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... material, financial, and intellectual communications, connecting all parts of the developed world, and establishing quick, constant, cheap, and reliable modes of transport for men, goods, money, and information, form the actual basis of what may not improperly be called an economic world-state. Though much of this machinery, with the great work of international trade and capitalistic co-operation which it assists to perform, lies outside the sphere of politics, there are innumerable points of political contact ...
— The Unity of Civilization • Various

... twenty-fifth June he discovered the island de Sal, one of the Cape Verdes, and passing it he came to another very improperly named Bona vista, which signifies good prospect, yet the place is dull and wretched. Here he cast anchor in a channel near a small island in which there are six or seven houses appointed for persons who are afflicted with the leprosy, who come there to be cured. And as sailors rejoice when ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... members rather than of authors. A publisher wishing to establish a monopoly in a book he had acquired entered it on the Stationers' Register, paying a fee of sixpence, and was thereby protected against piracy. When the copy so registered was improperly acquired, the state of the case is not so clear. At times the officials showed hesitation about registering a book until the applicant "hath gotten sufficient authoritye for yt," and As You Like It, for example, appears ...
— The Facts About Shakespeare • William Allan Nielson

... himself greater attention, consideration, or respect than he is entitled to. To say that he is presumptuous makes him an inferior (or at least not a superior) who claims privileges or takes liberties improperly. To say that he is haughty means that he assumes a disdainful superiority to others, especially through fancied or actual advantage over them in birth or social position. To say that he is supercilious means that he maintains toward others an attitude of lofty indifference or sneering contempt. ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... much the better for the whole settlement: I concluded with assuring them, that I should invariably attend to my orders, and put them in execution; and that a very severe punishment would be inflicted on any who presumed to excite sedition, or behaved improperly on that, or any ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter

... usage, 'The antique' is a phrase limited to the expression of art; but improperly so. It is quite as legitimately used to denote the literature of ancient times, in contradistinction to the modern. As to the term classical, though generally employed as equivalent to Greek and Roman, the reader ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... many people of every class came this way to the pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from these sources, and I never missed anything but one small book, a volume of Homer, which perhaps was improperly gilded, and this I trust a soldier of our camp has found by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place ...
— Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience • Henry David Thoreau

... proper, destroyed by fire 23rd January, 1834, it behoves us to close the narrative with a short account of the origin of the wing or new building still extant, and used since 1871 as the Normal School. This structure generally, though improperly styled the Old Chateau, dates back to the last century. On the 5th May, 1784, the corner stone was laid with suitable ceremonies, by the Governor-General, Sir Frederick Haldimand; the Chateau St. Louis had been found inadequate in size for the various purposes required, viz.: a Vice-regal ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... author here very improperly calls the Nayres, or Malabar soldiers of the zamorin, Moors; though in all probability there might be some Mahometans among the defenders ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... not, however, left the shore long before hostilities again commenced, and several shots were mischievously fired at the natives by some of the Dick's and San Antonio's people, who, being advanced, had very improperly endeavoured to cut off three of them, upon which one of the natives poised his spear with a threat of throwing it, when several muskets were fired at these miserable wretches, who, fortunately for them, got clear off; ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... part or parcel": as, "The auctioneer sold the goods in ten lots." The word does not mean "a great number"; therefore it is improperly used in the sentences: "He has lots of money," and "I know a lot of people in ...
— Practical Exercises in English • Huber Gray Buehler

... Lord Holland." The noble lord was thunderstruck. Had Pitt seen him? If so, he was undone. He ran up to reproach Miss Vernon. "True," was the reply; "she is the niece of Fox, but since she has twenty thousand pounds to her fortune, I thought I had not acted improperly ...
— Beaux and Belles of England • Mary Robinson

... "Most improperly," said Fyne, who really was in a state in which he didn't mind what he blurted out. "He isn't himself. He begged me to tell his sister that he offered no remarks on her conduct. Very improper and inconsequent. He said . . . I was tired of this wrangling. ...
— Chance • Joseph Conrad

... Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass for a book called the Cottage Bible which would not ordinarily be supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. ...
— The Abolitionists - Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights • John F. Hume

... him how he got it. If he had said that he had picked it up in the yard, and, not knowing to whom it belonged, had very improperly, without making inquiry, devoted it to the purpose of silencing this man, I should have gladly believed him—for hitherto he has stood high in my estimation, and I should certainly have considered him incapable of an ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... Beethoven—but always with the reservation that strenuous eccentricity such as Beethoven's is hardly admissible; whereas, vapid emptiness (das gleichgiltig Nichtssagende) is right and proper: a point at which Schumann properly played, and Beethoven improperly rendered, are perhaps comparable without much fear of misunderstanding! Thus these singular defenders of musical chastity stand towards our great classical music in the position of eunuchs in the Grand-Turk's Harem; and by the same token German Philistinism is ready to entrust ...
— On Conducting (Ueber das Dirigiren): - A Treatise on Style in the Execution of Classical Music • Richard Wagner (translated by Edward Dannreuther)

... establishments, which had been made in the Conococheague valley, were altogether broken up and scenes of the greatest barbarity, on one side, and of the utmost suffering on the other, were constantly exhibiting. A few instances of this suffering and of that barbarity, may not be improperly adduced here. They will serve to illustrate the condition of those who were within reach of the savage enemy; and perhaps, to palliate the enormities ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... sect, or what is called a sect—no doubt improperly—that of the Whistlers. Duncan Cameron, so clear in favour of the Mormons, was no less loud in condemnation of the Whistlers. Yet I do not know; I still fancy there is some connection, perhaps fortuitous, probably disavowed. Here at ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... similar passages are of great interest to the student of Japanese religious development. They should be made much of by Christian preachers and missionaries. Such writers and thinkers as Muro evidently was might not improperly be called the pre-Christian Christians of Japan. They prepared the way for the coming of more light on these subjects. Japanese Christian apologists should collect such utterances from her wise men of old, and by them lead the nation to an appreciation of the truths which they suggest ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick

... Langbaine improperly calls it) has been a great part of it revived by Mrs Behn, under the title of 'The Town Fop, or ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various

... has illegally concerned himself over the profits of a privateer. He has imposed, or at any rate has given his sanction to the imposition of menial offices upon the sons of freedom who are now serving in the militia, as was the case with young Matlack, which you will remember. And he has of late improperly granted a pass for a vessel to clear for the port of the enemy. I desire to make these charges publicly in order that you may know that my criticisms are not without foundation. I have in view your ...
— The Loyalist - A Story of the American Revolution • James Francis Barrett

... the stimulus for a time below the natural, and then increase it above natural. The effect of this process, improperly used, is seen in giving much food, or applying much warmth, to those who have been previously exposed to great hunger, or to great cold. The accumulated sensorial power is thrown into so violent exertion, that inflammations and mortifications supervene, and death closes ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... and awkwardness, my dear Fanny, believe me, you never have a shadow of either, but in using the words so improperly. There is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known. You have good sense, and a sweet temper, and I am sure you have a grateful heart, that could never receive kindness without wishing ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... tying his horse, and came along to where the children were standing, and, hearing their conversation, and finding that Lucy and Rollo were perplexed about a name, he told them he thought they might, not improperly, call him Noah, as, like Noah, by floating in a sort of ark, he was saved from ...
— Rollo at Play - Safe Amusements • Jacob Abbott

... week's start, and if it happens to be a lie that suits the popular taste, you may give up all hope of overtaking it at all. First in the way of exposure was a telegram from the Papal Nuncio at Lisbon on December 29, saying that his name had been improperly used. He was not the author of the telegram that had been fathered on him, and he knew nothing of Paul Bert's conversion. A day or two later the ship conveying the heretic's corpse arrived at the ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (Second Series) • George W. Foote

... years withered in an hour, the unhappy Carte drew up a faint appeal, rendered still more weak by a long and improbable tale, that the objectionable illustration had been merely a private note which by mistake had been printed, and only designed to show that the person who had been healed improperly attributed his cure to the sanative virtue of the regal unction; since the prince in question had never been anointed. But this was plunging from Scylla into Charybdis, for it inferred that the Stuarts inherited the heavenly-gifted touch by descent. This could not avail; yet heavy ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... learned the wisdom of "making a note:" but I had occasion to remark that dignitaries, &c. frequently wore wider scarfs than other clergymen (not however that the narrower one was ever that slender strip so improperly and servilely adopted of late from the corrupt custom of Rome, which has curtailed all ecclesiastical vestments); so that when the discussion upon this subject was revived by others some years ago, it was one to which ...
— Notes and Queries, No. 179. Saturday, April 2, 1853. • Various

... star-clusters. These, unlike the others, are found outside as well as inside the Milky Way, although they are more numerous inside its boundaries than elsewhere. The term star-cluster is sometimes applied, though improperly, to assemblages which are rather groups, such, for instance, as the Pleiades. In their most characteristic aspect star-clusters are of a globular shape — globes of suns! A famous example of a globular star-cluster, but one not included in the Milky Way, ...
— Curiosities of the Sky • Garrett Serviss

... sovereign have, as acts of grace and favour, in consideration of services rendered to the state, received such grants; and in these instances they are limited to descend with the dignity only. No doubt there are some private families who assume and improperly bear supporters, but whose right to do so, even under their own statements as to origin and descent, has no legal foundation. "NOTES AND QUERIES" afford neither space nor place for the discussion of such questions, or for the remarks upon a correction of statements ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851 • Various

... debility and disease of the eyes seem to be multiplying at a rate which should awaken general attention to this matter. The causes are to be found in the neglect, often the hurtful management, of the eyesight of children; in the influence of improperly regulating artificial light; and in the injury done by ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys

... thought so too, and most improperly replied, "The difference of age would of course put that out of the question;" nor when he had committed the indiscretion, did he perceive the red spot which came upon Mrs. Hazleton's fair brow, and indicated sufficiently enough the effect his words ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... have been properly cared for from their early start, wounds and cavities and their subsequent elaborate treatment have no place. But where trees have been neglected or improperly cared for, wounds and cavities are bound to occur and early treatment ...
— Studies of Trees • Jacob Joshua Levison

... professional acquirements and abilities into notice. Afterwards, the merit of the candidate, and his fitness for any given situation, ought, and probably will, ultimately decide whether the assistance has been properly or improperly given. If family friends procure for any young man a reward of any kind which he has not merited, I should object to that as much as if the place or the reward had been bestowed by a professed patron from political ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth

... courts assembled on the first, and continued sitting by adjournments until the fourteenth, for the decision of many civil concerns. Among these was the recovery of debts, several of which had been contracted very improperly, and which were likely ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 2 • David Collins

... with a white mark on the breast, and darker along the back and on the legs, feet, nose, and tail. Its whole appearance reminded one of a gigantic weasel—which in fact it was—the great marten of America, generally, though improperly, called the 'fisher.' When we first saw it, it was crouching along a high log, that ran directly toward the tree, upon which was the porcupine. Its eyes were fixed intently upon the latter; and it was evidently meditating an attack. We stopped to ...
— The Desert Home - The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... Exposed garbage, improperly built outdoor toilets, and stable manure are breeding places of flies; and flies are notorious carriers of disease. Yet, out of more than 3000 homes in one county in Indiana only 31 made provision to prevent stable manure ...
— Community Civics and Rural Life • Arthur W. Dunn

... and not only waggons, but even the individual tarpaulins that cover them are watched and noted in this way, in order that the various companies over whose lines they pass may get their due, and that the companies owning them may get their demurrage if they be improperly detained on the way. For this purpose, at every point where separate railways join, there are stationed men in the pay of the Clearing-House, whose duty it is to take the numbers of all passenger carriages and goods, waggons and tarpaulins, and ...
— The Iron Horse • R.M. Ballantyne

... Greenough, late President of the Geological Society, in his anniversary address to that body on the 24th of May, 1841, remarks that, "It is much to be regretted that Government has not recognised Tasmania as the name of that island, improperly denominated Van Diemen's Land. The occurrence of a second Van Diemen's Land on the northern coast of Australia occasions confusion; and since Tasman, not Van Diemen, was the first discoverer of the island, it would be but just that whatever honour the name confers ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... prayer, and Ibrahim was at his devotions. At last, pestered by their dalliance, I fired my double-barrelled gun, whose loud report I knew was more likely to reach the ear of a praying Mussulman. I did not reckon improperly, for hardly had the echoes died away before the great war-drum of the town was rattled, while a voice from a loophole demanded our business. I left the negotiation for our entry to the Fullah chief, who forthwith answered that "the Ali-Mami's caravan, laden ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... that these dictates of reason are improperly called laws, because 'law, properly, is the word of him that by right hath command over others.' But when considered not as mere conclusions or theorems concerning the means of conservation and defence, but as delivered in ...
— Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics • Alexander Bain

... consequence of all this, men had forgotten their duties to the other sex, and that even at the time at which he lived woman was still in great social bondage, improperly educated, tied down by restrictions, and refused participation in the higher positions of labor. He called not in vain, against the inequality of the sexes, and asserted that woman's position must and should be altered by forgetting the tyranny of the past, and, ...
— Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer • Charles Sotheran

... We saw none of that sort which we call lions; but there were some of those which the writer of Lord Anson's voyage describes under that name; at least they appeared to us to be of the same sort; and are, in my opinion, very improperly called lions, for I could not see any grounds for ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) • Robert Kerr

... now, whether the law ought to acknowledge and protect such a state of life as minority, nor whether the continuance which is fixed for that state be not improperly prolonged in the law of England. Neither of these in general are questioned. The only question, is, whether matrimony is to be taken out of the general rule, and whether the minors of both sexes, without the consent of their parents, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... indescribable excitement ensues. The three votes improperly made out are said to be trip passes accidentally dropped into the box by the supporters of the Honourable Elisha Jane. And add up the sum total of the votes! Thirty-one votes more than there are ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... easy business, if it were permitted to lengthen words at pleasure, and then giving a burlesque example of that sort of diction... In the employment of all the species of unusual words, moderation is necessary: for metaphors, foreign words, or any of the others improperly used, and with a design to be ridiculous, would produce the same effect. But how great a difference is made by a proper and temperate use of such words may be seen in heroic verse. Let any one put common words in the place ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... addition to simple costiveness, we have more or less loss of appetite, with a too pale tongue, dullness, and sleepiness, with slight redness of the conjunctiva. Sometimes constipation alternates with diarrhoea, the food being improperly commingled with the gastric and other juices, ferments, spoils, and becomes, instead of healthy blood-producing chyme, an ...
— Dogs and All About Them • Robert Leighton

... chief of artillery or some other officer to do it; but I hope that none of the guns which belonged to the Army of the Valley before it became part of the Army of Northern Virginia, after the battle of Cedar Run, will be taken from it. If since that time any artillery has improperly come into my command, I trust that it will be taken away, and the person in whose possession it may be found punished, if his conduct requires it. So careful was I to prevent an improper distribution of the artillery ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson

... to Porto Rico, forced the vessel to put into Teneriffe. There M. Le Gros was led by the beauty of the spot to settle. It was he who augmented scientific knowledge by the first accurate ideas of the great lateral eruption of the Peak, which has been very improperly called the explosion of the volcano of Chahorra. This eruption took place on the ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt

... not generous, but I know you are not serious in what you say. You judge Mrs. Headley better, and that she is not a woman to be so drilled. She has too much good sense, despite all her partiality for her husband, to allow herself to be improperly influenced, where her judgment condemns; and although, as his wife, she must necessarily act in concert with him, it by no means follows that she approves unreservedly, ...
— Hardscrabble - The Fall of Chicago: A Tale of Indian Warfare • John Richardson

... that arising from the dust." But that, or except that, is correct. Some persons improperly ...
— Slips of Speech • John H. Bechtel

... miserable condition to last!" she said to herself. "'Till you can entirely give up your feeling of resentment, and apologise to Mr. Lindsay," said conscience. "Apologise! but I haven't done wrong." "Yes, you have," said conscience; "you spoke improperly; he is justly displeased; and you must make an apology before there can be any peace." "But I said the truth—it is not right—it is not right! it is wrong; and am I to go and make an apology? I can't do it." "Yes, for the wrong you have done," ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner

... "I hear and understand the emphasis with which you pronounce that word delicacy. I see you have not forgotten that I used it improperly half an hour ago, as you ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth

... this extensive lake which is near the establishments, is called "The Lake of the Hills," not improperly, as the northern shore and the islands are high and rocky. The south side, however, is quite level, consisting of alluvial land, subject to be flooded, lying betwixt the different mouths of the Elk River, and much intersected by water. The rocks of the northern ...
— Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 1 • John Franklin

... be thought, and are, therefore, as contingent, factitious generalizations. To this process of experiment, analysis, and classification, through which we attain to a scientific knowledge of principles, it might be shown that Aristotle, not improperly, applies ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... and have consequently restored the reading of the first edition. Venner gives the following description of this favourite liquor. "Canarie-wine, which beareth the name of the islands from whence it is brought, is of some termed a sacke, with this adjunct, sweete; but yet very improperly, for it differeth not only from sacke in sweetness and pleasantness of taste, but also in colour and consistence, for it is not so white in colour as sack, nor so thin in substance; wherefore it is more nutritive than sack, and less penetrative." ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle

... in the course of the argument on points on which the Court feels no inclination to comment particularly, but which may, perhaps not improperly receive ...
— John Marshall and the Constitution - A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Edward S. Corwin

... one of the noblest, most generous boys you ever knew. But some day you would probably discover that he had a most violent temper. You would be frightened to see his face crimson with rage, as he stamped his feet, shook his little sister, spoke improperly to his mother, and above all, displeased his great ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... "Shade above shade, a woody theatre," and has in front this noble river, on which the ships continually passing present to the delighted eye the most charming moving picture imaginable; I never saw a place so formed to inspire that pleasing lassitude, that divine inclination to saunter, which may not improperly be called, the luxurious indolence of the country. I intend to build a temple here to ...
— The History of Emily Montague • Frances Brooke

... obliged to abstain from swearing, and all abusive language, and dare not wear any article of gold or silk in their dress. Many of them make it a rule never to eat of any food, nor to receive any money, which they suspect to have been improperly acquired. For this reason, whenever they have to receive considerable sums of money, they take care that it shall be first exchanged for other coin. The Sheikh El Nedjem, who generally accompanies the Sheikh Beshir, in his visits to ...
— Travels in Syria and the Holy Land • John Burckhardt

... improperly used are dry and uninteresting; they often spoil an otherwise forceful and persuasive debate. The trouble often lies, strange to say, in the accuracy with which the figures are given. A brain that is already ...
— Practical Argumentation • George K. Pattee

... it is a little oval poem, and may not improperly be called a scholar's egg. I would endeavour to hatch it, or, in more intelligible language, to translate it into English, did not I find the interpretation of it very difficult; for the author seems to have been more intent upon ...
— Essays and Tales • Joseph Addison

... years at Shakspere's death, lived long enough to witness the establishment of an entirely new school of poets, in the persons of Dryden and his contemporaries. But, roughly speaking, the dates above given mark the limits of one literary epoch, which may not improperly be called the Elisabethan. In strictness the Elisabethan age ended with the queen's death, in 1603. But the poets of the succeeding reigns inherited much of the glow and splendor which marked the diction of their forerunners; ...
— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers

... provost guard in the city, but will limit their duty to guarding public property held or claimed by the United States, and for the arrest and confinement of State prisoners and soldiers who are disorderly or improperly away from their regiments. This guard ought not to arrest citizens for disorder or minor crimes. This should be done by the city police. I understand that the city police is too weak in numbers to accomplish this perfectly, and I ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

... as "healthy" is said properly and first of that which is possessed of health, and secondarily of that which is a sign or a safeguard of health; so justification means first and properly the causing of justice; while secondarily and improperly, as it were, it may denote a sign of justice or a disposition thereto. If justice be taken in the last two ways, it is evident that it was conferred by the precepts of the Law; in so far, to wit, as they disposed men ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... suppose that I have saved a man's children from a shipwreck or a fire, and that afterwards disease or accident has carried them off; even when they are no more, the kindness which was done by means of them remains. All those things, therefore, which improperly assume the name of benefits, are means by which kindly feeling manifests itself. In other cases also, we find a distinction between the visible symbol and the matter itself, as when a general bestows collars of gold, or civic or mural crowns upon any one. What ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... disposed to listen to dictation. But Sir Thomas insisted. "It's as well that we should understand each other at once," said Sir Thomas. "I should throw up the contest in the middle of it,—even if I were winning,—if I suspected that money was being spent improperly." How often has the same thing been said by a candidate, and what candidate ever has thrown up the sponge when he was winning? Mr. Trigger was at first disposed to tell Sir Thomas that he was interfering in things beyond his province. Had it not been that the day was late, and that the Liberals ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... inducing a passive psychological state—one peculiarly open to suggestion of all kinds—it can readily be seen that its employment may be exceedingly dangerous, save in the hands of a skilled operator. It may be the very cause of a splitting of the mind—if improperly administered—if the patient is not thoroughly awakened, the effects of suggestion completely removed, etc. In this lies the great danger—of which we hear so much, usually with so little foundation! The real danger in the process is thus apparent; but, properly applied, hypnotism ...
— The Problems of Psychical Research - Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal • Hereward Carrington

... well-bred baboons. But it never occurs to him to ask why the admiration of blue noses is healthy in baboons, so that it develops their race properly, while similar maidenly admiration either of blue noses or red noses in men would be improper, and develop the race improperly. The word itself 'proper' being one of which he has never asked, or guessed, the meaning. And when he imagined the gradation of the cloudings in feathers to represent successive generation, it never occurred to him to look at the much finer cloudy gradations ...
— Proserpina, Volume 1 - Studies Of Wayside Flowers • John Ruskin

... Marian. What was there to understand? He spoke very improperly, find I desire him to apologise; and if he is obstinate, it is very wrong of you to ...
— The Two Guardians • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... influential of her clergy, and the great majority of her well educated laity, embraced the doctrines of a more generous and scriptural theology. Without falling into Pelagianism, a charge made by Calvinists on all who reject the system improperly called "the doctrines of grace," they held the great evangelic truth that Christ "died for all," and its correspondent views of the benevolence of God, and the moral dignity of human nature, impaired, but not destroyed, by ...
— On Calvinism • William Hull

... like the last, is improperly called Nemean. It commemorates a victory won at the feast of the Hekatombaia at Argos. The date ...
— The Extant Odes of Pindar • Pindar

... be answered, that it is called The Daughter of a Voice in relation to the oracles of Urim and Thummim. For whereas that was a voice given from off the mercy-seat, within the vail, and this, upon the decay of that oracle, came as it were in its place, it might not unfitly or improperly be called a daughter, or successor of that voice.'—Lightfoot, vol. i. pp. 485, 486. Consult also the learned Doctor, vol. ii. pp. 128, 129: 'It was used for a testimony from heaven, but was indeed performed by ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli

... and uneasiness about the future, the atra cura of the Latins, you will look for among us in vain. It is this care which poisons the pleasure of the present; whilst that other, which can only improperly be called care, but the real name of which is foresight, by means of the perfect sense of security which it creates concerning the morrow enhances the delight of present enjoyment by the foretaste to-day of future enjoyments already provided for. Herein lies the guarantee of ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka

... manner of conjugating neuter verbs, which, when it is used, may not improperly denominate them neuter passives, as they are inflected according to the passive form by the help of the verb substantive to be. They answer nearly to the reciprocal verbs in French; as, I am risen, surrexi, Latin; Je me suis leve, ...
— A Grammar of the English Tongue • Samuel Johnson

... went. A year and another year passed. The pretty home was beginning to look old. The bloom of its youth had most improperly faded—for surely a home should never fade—but there was the boy, a growing delight to his father, so why complain? Better this easy-going life than one ...
— Paste Jewels • John Kendrick Bangs

... at the North. Those instances were rare exceptions; and because they were so few and so exceptional, acquired a degree of notoriety and received a degree of attention to which they were never entitled. Such instances as these have always served to prejudice the South improperly against the North. Men are too much given to forming opinions of us from the intemperate acts of ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden

... of love-making and matrimonial prearrangement than I, and so you can't draw invidious comparisons if I do my engaging improperly.' ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy

... had reason to believe, General Hamilton had used expressions derogatory to his honour, he would have had the magnanimity to retract them; and that if, from his language, injurious inferences had been improperly drawn, he would have perceived the propriety of correcting errors which might thus have been widely diffused. With these impressions Colonel Burr was greatly surprised at receiving a letter which he considered as evasive, and which, in manner, he deemed ...
— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... indicated is read upon the graduated rule and is called off in a loud voice to another person, who at once writes it down. There are several causes of error: it is possible that the reading may be incorrectly made or improperly called off, or be misunderstood or incorrectly noted. Finally, it is a somewhat fatiguing operation that is often dispensed with and the measurement made by estimate. In order to do away with all such causes of error, M. Jobez, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 • Various

... been said above, and in the Preface, on this head, the following opinion of an ingenious and candid Foreigner, on this manner of writing, may not be improperly inserted here. ...
— Clarissa: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, and Postscript • Samuel Richardson

... Dodger's Digest of Dustbin Law, and recommend it to the perusal of every householder. In the case of The Vestry of Shoreditch v. Grimes, Lord Justice SLUSH remarks—"The Vestry complains that the Defendant's bin was improperly covered; that, in fact, it was not under coverture. To this the Defendant replies that his bin was void ab initio, as there was nothing in it. Then the question arises whether the Defendant's Cook was justified in tipping the Dustman into the empty bin, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, July 23, 1892 • Various

... Turkey;' which does not agree with the above account from Pancirollus. Brookes says (p. 144.), 'It was brought into Europe either from India or Africa.' And if from the latter, it might be called Turkey, though but improperly."—Anonymiana, cent. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853 • Various

... jail. Casting his eyes up to the gallery, he scowled at the occupants, to whom he referred as a band of ruffians who had come there to intimidate the House. The Lieutenant-Governor, he said, had interfered very improperly, and in a manner no way creditable to himself. He had acted like the Vicar of Bray, and might yet find, like that individual, that by taking both sides of a question he might fall through between. Mr. Samson, member for Hastings, ...
— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... well as those from non-irrigated lands; and watery grapes from irrigated lands make inferior raisins. It is maintained, however, with a show of reason, that grapes suffer in irrigated vineyards in the ways set forth only when the vines are over-or improperly irrigated. ...
— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick

... uniforms have what she calls 'such a dreadful effect.' Giddy and unreliable young women are wandering about the lanes and fields with stranger sweethearts at all hours. Even girls who have been good Sunday-school scholars are becoming insubordinate. She did not in the least mean to be improperly humorous—in fact she was quite tragic when she said that the rector felt that he ought to marry, on the spot, every rambling couple he met. He had already performed the ceremony in a number of cases when he felt it was almost criminally rash and ...
— Robin • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... which I am represented as putting forward as new, is much older than the hypothesis of natural selection—goes back at least as far as Dr. Erasmus Darwin. My purpose was to bring into the foreground again a factor which has, I think, been of late years improperly ignored; to show that Mr. Darwin recognized this factor in an increasing degree as he grew older (by showing which I should have thought I sufficiently excluded the supposition that I brought it forward as new); to give further evidence ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... fortunate bite for you, Fanny," said her mother, "and for your neighbors, if it should make you more careful in the use of it. If we were liable to such a misfortune whenever we use our tongues improperly, some persons would be in a constant agony. Now, if our consciences were but half as sensitive as our nerves, they would answer the purpose much better. Foolish talking pains a good conscience, just as continual ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... troubles of the preceding six months began again then and there, and grew worse and worse continually. Money did not come in quickly, for Ellen cheated him by keeping it back, and dealing improperly with the goods he bought. When it did come in she got it out of him as before on pretexts which it seemed inhuman to inquire into. It was always the same story. By and by a new feature began to show itself. Ernest ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... his fury on the favorites and servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of Christians of every rank and of both sexes, were involved the promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has improperly received the name ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... carried a lofty head, drew for awhile, and then came to a point. We got up to her. She led us across some ridges, when her companion, a jealous dog (a pointer), which had at first backed correctly, most improperly pushed on in front, but, not being able to acknowledge the scent, went off, clearly imagining the bitch was in error. She, however, held on, and in beautiful style brought us up direct to a covey. My friend ...
— Anecdotes of Dogs • Edward Jesse

... so vast and durable, (though, in comparison with their conquered vassals, they were numerically few,) that with the invasion of Hengist in the one case, and the battle of Poictiers in the other, the modern history of both countries may not improperly be said to have begun. To the student of that history, however, one consideration must occur, which imparts to the objects of his studies an interest emphatically its own. It is this: he has strong reason to believe that all the elements ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various

... Poets, since the best things are liable to Corruptions. But it may be objected, That our Poets don't make Persons speak like themselves. That indeed is a Fault, and I can't say any thing to excuse it but this; That they who, have the Judgment to know when a Poet speaks improperly, ought to have so much Judgment, as not to be byassed by his Irregularities: The People who don't understand it, generally suppose, that what is Vertuous is to be imitated, and what is Vicious is to be avoided. That this is the general Observation of ...
— A Letter to A.H. Esq.; Concerning the Stage (1698) and The - Occasional Paper No. IX (1698) • Anonymous

... following examples, the words and syllables which are improperly accented or emphasized in the poetry, are marked in italics. According to the principle stated above, the reader should avoid giving them that pronunciation which the correct rending of the poetry would require, but should read them as prose, ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... satisfactorily, but that does not go far in helping the man who has a fireplace that will not work. Frequently it is possible without any very great expense and trouble to correct a fireplace that has been improperly built. If one has in mind a clear comprehension of the few elementary principles of fireplace construction it will usually be an easy matter to determine the reason why a fireplace smokes or fails ...
— Making a Fireplace • Henry H. Saylor

... the alforjos of a baboon, and a mouth so much accustomed to that contraction which produces grinning, that he could not pronounce a syllable without discovering the remains of his teeth, which consisted of four yellow fangs, not improperly, by anatomists, called canine. This person, I say, after having eyed me some time, said, "Oho, 'tis ver well, Monsieur Concordance; young man, you are ver welcome, take one coup of bierre—and ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett

... Harriet, you must not refine too much upon this charade.—You will betray your feelings improperly, if you are too conscious and too quick, and appear to affix more meaning, or even quite all the meaning which may be affixed to it. Do not be overpowered by such a little tribute of admiration. If he had been anxious for secrecy, he would not have left the paper while I was by; but he rather ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... some plants move during the day in a manner, which has improperly been called diurnal sleep; for when the sun shines brightly on them, they direct their edges towards it. To such cases we shall recur in the following chapter on Heliotropism. It has been shown that the leaflets of one form ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

... only asks us to lead it under our boilers and into our heating and puddling furnaces, and apply the match. During the winter several explosions have occurred in Pittsburg, owing to the escape of gas from pipes improperly laid. The frost having penetrated the earth for several feet and prevented escape upward, the freed gas found its way into the cellars of houses, and, as it is odorless, its presence was not detected. This resulted in several alarming explosions; but the danger is to be remedied before ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 • Various

... proceeding has been this, we have thrown what are, in our opinion, very improperly called the six first general rules, into one plain short declaration of the ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... in a region between them. A great writer knows how to strike both these chords, sometimes remaining within the sphere of the visible, and then again comprehending a wider range and soaring to the abstract and universal. Even in the same sentence he may employ both modes of speech not improperly or inharmoniously. It is useless to criticise the broken metaphors of Plato, if the effect of the whole is to create a picture not such as can be painted on canvas, but which is full of life and meaning ...
— Gorgias • Plato

... my son was here improperly are anywhere near correct, then you are entitled to my most hearty apology. Fred is a peculiar and high-strung boy, but I believe his impulses are right in the main. I will add that I believe his account of how he came to be in ...
— The High School Boys' Canoe Club • H. Irving Hancock

... New South Wales, Melaleuca (?) Trinervia. This is a small shrub, very much branched. . . . It most nearly approaches the Leptospermum virgatum of Forster, referred by the younger Linnaeus, perhaps improperly, to Melaleuca." ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... such circumstances, by the most candid admission of the fact, accompanied by a store of other knowledge unfortunately quite foreign to the pursuits of the Society; and I will add, that I regretted to see him insulted by one President in a situation improperly given to ...
— Decline of Science in England • Charles Babbage

... somewhat casual investigation that you have been consistently violating a large number of city ordinances—keeping parrots, beating rugs, allowing unmuzzled dogs at large, overfilling your garbage cans, disregarding the speed laws and traffic regulations, using improperly secured window boxes—" ...
— By Advice of Counsel • Arthur Train

... projecting through the assembler face-plate from the rear, as shown in Fig. 7, its purpose being to hold the matrices forward and prevent them from falling back in such a manner that succeeding matrices and spaces or justifiers will pass improperly ahead of them. The descending matrices also pass beneath a long depending spring g4, which should be so adjusted as barely to permit the passage ...
— A Book of Exposition • Homer Heath Nugent

... considerably exceeding the whole of the revenue raised in the reign of Charles the Second, and what part of the sum granted to the king for extraordinary expenses might be applied to the same use, the article might not improperly be swelled with the vast expense incurred by expeditions to the coast of France; the chief, if not sole, design of which seemed to be a diversion in favour of the nation's allies in Germany, by preventing France from sending such numerous armies into that country ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... you now, that, even though you may have some sort of law on your side just now, because you have played this trick, you won't be able to count on the law much longer. It will be as powerful against you, properly used, as it has been for you, improperly used." ...
— A Campfire Girl's Happiness • Jane L. Stewart

... a spirit of mutiny—in which I am, in a sense, an expert— I went in boots and otherwise "improperly dressed," for I wore my hair in a queue, like a peasant. What is more, I danced with a negress in the great quadrille, and thereby offended the governor and his lady aunt, who presides at his palace. It matters naught to me. On my ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... opinion of those who think that the facts ought always to be related in the same order in which they happened. That manner of narration is best which is of most advantage to the cause, and it may, not improperly, call in the aid of a diversity of figures. Sometimes we may pretend that a thing has been overlooked, so that it may be better exprest elsewhere than it would be in its own order and place; assuring the ...
— The Training of a Public Speaker • Grenville Kleiser

... language the term dromedary is very improperly applied to the Bactrian, or two-hunched camel, a slow beast of burden. The word dromedary is formed from the Greek celer, and only belongs to a peculiar breed of camels of ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... own gas and water and ice and traction and railway stocks? Mustn't a rich man invest his money somehow? And how could he more creditably invest it than in local enterprises and in enterprises that opened up the country and gave employment to labor? What if the dividends were improperly, even criminally, earned? Must he therefore throw the dividends paid him into the street? As for a man of such associations and financial interests being unfit fairly to administer public affairs, what balderdash! Who could be more fit ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips

... at this want of discretion, as he considered it, on the part of Confucius, and the vehemence of his master's answer showed that there was a doubt in his own mind whether he had not overstepped the limits of sage-like propriety. "Wherein I have done improperly," said he, "may Heaven reject me! may Heaven reject me!" This incident did not, however, prevent him from maintaining friendly relations with the court, and it was not until the duke by a public act showed his inability to understand the dignity of the role which Confucius desired to assume, that ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various

... other should further accuse me for having improperly named Ibrahim's House a Palace, since all those of quality are called Seraglioes at Constantinople, I desire you to remember that I have done it by the counsel of two or three excellent persons, who ...
— Prefaces to Fiction • Various

... maturely he came to the conclusion that there must have been something wrong on both sides. If he had presented the truth properly the young man could not have acted so improperly. After recalling the whole affair, he became satisfied that he had relied far too much on his own strong logic, and it had seemed to him that it must convince. He had forgotten for the moment that those who would do good should be very humble, ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... before Ch'ing Wen, who stood by, put in her word. "Who's gone mad again?" she interposed, "and what good would come by hurting her feelings? But did even any one happen to hurt her, she would have pluck enough to bear the brunt, and wouldn't act so improperly ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... will, in this way, have the boldness to say many things which ought to be said, but about which, in his study, he would feel reluctant and timid. And granting that he might be led to say some things improperly, yet if his mind be well disciplined, and well governed, and his discretion habitual, he will do it exceedingly seldom; while no one, who estimates the object of preaching as highly as he should, will think an occasional false step any objection against that mode which ensures upon the whole ...
— Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching • Henry Ware

... when the Australian heiress, as she was improperly styled, was taking London more or less by storm, she chanced to overhear a brief colloquy not intended ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge

... ambitious not to be behindhand with him in deserving it. So he made the inhabitants of Jerusalem bear him the greatest good-will while he held the city himself, but did neither manage its affairs improperly, nor abuse his authority therein. This conduct procured from the nation to Antipater such respect as is due to kings, and such honors as he might partake of if he were an absolute lord of the country. ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus

... institution of the American governments the boundaries of authority were not properly fixed. Committees exercised legislative, executive, and judicial powers. It is not to be doubted that in many instances these were improperly used, and that private resentments were often covered under the specious veil of patriotism. The sufferers, in passing over to the Loyalists, carried with them a keen remembrance of the vengeance of Committees, and when opportunity presented were tempted to retaliate. From ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson

... of the Plays omitted in the later Editions, as well as the early Folios, and not improperly; tho' it was published many years before the death of Shakespeare, with his name in the Title-page. Aulus Gellius informs us that some Plays are ascribed absolutely to Plautus, which he only re-touched ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith

... anew for tension, furnished upon being discharged a spark due to a difference of potential of about 32,000 volts that presented all the characters of the spark produced by induction coils on the machines so improperly called "static." Finally, we may cite the apparatus arranged by Mr. S.P. Thompson for studying the development of currents in magneto-electric machines. The inventor studies the influence of the forms of the inductors and armatures of machines by means of an arrangement that allows him to change ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. • Various



Words linked to "Improperly" :   properly, improper



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