indefinite : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: indefinite	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for indefinite
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
indefinite adj 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" Antonym(s): definite not decided or not known; "were indefinite about their plans"; "plans are indefinite"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Indefinite \Indef"inite\, 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, [bd]the chymists say this,[b8] or [bd]the chymists affirm that.[b8] --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.