disproportion
English
Etymology
dis- + proportion
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /dɪspɹəˈpɔːʃən/
Audio (RP) (file)
Noun
disproportion (countable and uncountable, plural disproportions)
- The state of being out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance.
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 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.
- 1978 December 9, Nancy Walker, “Sexism and Racism at GCN?”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 10:
- Then we, the social outsiders, turn around and dictate how men shall treat women (seldom, if ever, how women shall treat men; power in men's rather than women's hands being the excuse offered for this lop-sided arrangement), and how whites shall treat blacks (the same disproportion exists here too).
- the disproportion of the length of a building to its height
- Lack of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness.
- the disproportion of strength or means to an object
Derived terms
Translations
the state of being out of proportion
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Verb
disproportion (third-person singular simple present disproportions, present participle disproportioning, simple past and past participle disproportioned)
- (transitive) To make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.
- c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- To shape my legs of an unequal size; / To disproportion me in every part.
- 1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell, →OCLC:
- a degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the extent of its territory
French
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “disproportion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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