inchoate

comparative more inchoate · superlative most inchoate

1. Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.

   neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate

   1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)

   5 more examples

   It do's indeed perfect and crown thoſe graces which were here inchoate and begun, but no mans converſion ever ſucceeded his being there ...

   1677, Richard Allestree, The Art of Contentment, page 187

   This appointment is evidenced by an open, unequivocal act, and, being the last act required from the person making it, necessarily excludes the idea of its being, so far as it respects the appointment, an inchoate and incomplete transaction.

   1803, Supreme Court of the United States, Marbury v. Madison

   It being determined that a constitution should be made for the inchoate government, men were selected by its sponsors, from those at the Illinois Camp Ground, including as many western Cherokees as could be induced to sign it.

   1839, Cherokee Constitution

   ...unfortunately, we have to face inchoate schemes which will demand the utmost jealousy and vigilance of Parliament.

   1885, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, On the Death of General Gordon

   The private conception of any breach of law is apt to be inspiriting, for the scheme (while yet inchoate) wears dashing and attractive colours.

   1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “The Tribulations of Morris: Part the First”, in The Wrong Box, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 85

   Synonyms: elementary, immature, embryonic, incipient, nascent, rudimentary

2. Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.

   The Met's chairman, Sir Edward Watkin, was also chairman of that company [the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway], which duplicated other railways' routes in an inchoate way between Manchester and Grimsby, and generally stumbled about the north.

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 73

   Synonyms: chaotic, confused

3. lawOf a crime, imposing criminal liability for an incompleted act.

   Congress considers the inchoate offenses of attempt and conspiracy, even conspiracy without an overt act, to be just as serious as the federal substantive drug offenses which they contemplate.

   2006, United States v. McKenney, 450 F.3d 39 (1st Cir. 2006)

plural inchoates

1. rareA beginning, an immature start.

present singular third person inchoates · participle present inchoating · participle past inchoated · past inchoated

1. transitiveTo begin or start (something).
2. transitiveTo cause or bring about. In the field of criminology, to encourage, assist, conspire, aid and abet, incite, etc.
3. intransitiveTo make a start.