disproportion
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /dɪspɹəˈpɔːʃən/
Noun

disproportion

  1. The state of being out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance.
    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter XIII, p. 208,
      […] a handsome creature, remarkably so, with features so symmetrical […] that a micrometer gauge could scarcely find a disproportion in her smooth and broad mahogany-coloured face.
    the disproportion of the length of a building to its height
  2. Lack of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness.
    the disproportion of strength or means to an object
Translations Verb

disproportion (disproportions, present participle disproportioning; past and past participle disproportioned)

  1. (transitive) To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.
    • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      To shape my legs of an unequal size; / To disproportion me in every part.
    • a degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the extent of its territory



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