Imprecision

MWDEU remarks that the phrase’s very imprecision is its greatest virtue: “writers don’t always want to be precise”. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The reason for the imprecision is the spread of durations of the individual bonds. ❋ Richard Shaw (2010)

A CBO letter to Reid, dated Nov. 18, noted the "imprecision" of the calculation and the great degree of "uncertainty" inherent in healthcare reform finances. ❋ Dbsb3233 (2009)

The budget office put a big asterisk on its forecast, using words like "imprecision" and ❋ Unknown (2009)

Incidentally, imprecision about who "the rich" are is a persistent flaw in analyses like his. ❋ Unknown (2009)

More The BOE Minutes "Given the imprecision with which the appropriate stance of policy could be calibrated at this juncture, there was little merit in fine tuning," the minutes record. ❋ Jason Douglas (2011)

Sometimes the imprecision brings about a surreal humor: The impresario Ziegfeld, Mr. Collins reports, went to see Thorn accompanied by his "personal mistress." ❋ Judith Flanders (2011)

And when, in the third minute of first-half stoppage time, the home side scored the goal they needed, the one that set them on the way to a deserved victory, it came from a moment of uncharacteristic imprecision by the exiled Catalan. ❋ Unknown (2011)

When he took the momentum out of a promising move a few minutes later by redirecting José Enrique's pass sloppily wide of Johnson, it was the sort of imprecision that can be blamed on a lack of match practice. ❋ Unknown (2011)

A little imprecision on the math aside, Phil's overall point, that you can't elongate or 'ovalize' a shot column by swinging the barrel of the shotgun as you fire, is still perfectly correct. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The photographic precision of Caillebotte's work stands in sharp contrast to the calligraphic touch with which Monet represented the imprecision of real vision. ❋ David Galenson (2011)

They describe the anti-terror laws passed in many Arab countries, in which “imprecision and ambiguity form a threat to basic freedoms”, and note that states have clearly “failed to find the required balance between the security of society and the preservation of individual rights and freedoms”. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Brancusi dates a photograph of the piece 1914-17, with the typical chronological imprecision of an artist. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Washington isn't a party to the suit at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, but opposes the EU law on grounds of jurisdiction, imprecision in the program's rules and other issues. ❋ Daniel Michaels (2011)

But the imprecision also makes words more timeless and intimate. ❋ Unknown (2009)

To purists who might object to the title's imprecision, the authors cheerfully retort: Not all critters that fly or crawl on the ground / Are technically bugs, but we both have found / Most folks call them bugs, and since they do, / We figured, why not? ❋ Meghan Cox Gordon (2011)

Despite the imprecision, Lapan said the military believes insurgents killed far more civilians than U.S. and allied forces have in Iraq. ❋ Unknown (2011)