fragmentary

  • 1Fragmentary — Frag men*ta*ry, a. [Cf. F. fragmentaire.] 1. Composed of fragments, or broken pieces; disconnected; not complete or entire. Donne. [1913 Webster] 2. (Geol.) Composed of the fragments of other rocks. [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2fragmentary — index broken (fractured), imperfect, inchoate, minimal, partial (part), partial (relating to a part), semi …

    Law dictionary

  • 3fragmentary — (adj.) 1835 (with an isolated use in Donne from 1611), from FRAGMENT (Cf. fragment) + ARY (Cf. ary) …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4fragmentary — should be pronounced with the stress on the first syllable …

    Modern English usage

  • 5fragmentary — [adj] broken, incomplete bitty, disconnected, discrete, disjointed, fractional, incoherent, part, partial, piecemeal, scattered, scrappy, sketchy, unsystematic; concept 785 Ant. all, complete, total, unbroken, whole …

    New thesaurus

  • 6fragmentary — [frag′mən ter΄ē, frag ment′ə rē] adj. consisting of fragments; not complete; disconnected fragmentarily adv. fragmentariness n …

    English World dictionary

  • 7fragmentary — adjective Date: 1611 consisting of fragments ; incomplete < fragmentary evidence > < a fragmentary account > • fragmentarily adverb • fragmentariness noun …

    New Collegiate Dictionary

  • 8fragmentary — fragmentarily, adv. fragmentariness, n. /frag meuhn ter ee/, adj. consisting of or reduced to fragments; broken; disconnected; incomplete: fragmentary evidence; fragmentary remains. [1605 15; FRAGMENT + ARY] * * * …

    Universalium

  • 9fragmentary — [[t]fræ̱gməntəri, AM teri[/t]] ADJ GRADED Something that is fragmentary is made up of small or unconnected pieces. Any action on the basis of such fragmentary evidence would be foolish …

    English dictionary

  • 10fragmentary — frag•men•tar•y [[t]ˈfræg mənˌtɛr i[/t]] adj. consisting of fragments; broken; incomplete: fragmentary evidence; fragmentary remains[/ex] • Etymology: 1605–15 frag′men•tar i•ly, adv. frag′men•tar i•ness, n …

    From formal English to slang