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disproportion. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
disproportion, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Etymology
From dis- + proportion.
Pronunciation
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
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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :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
Noun
disproportion f (plural disproportions)
- disproportion
Further reading