INCIPIENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does incipient mean? 

• INCIPIENT (adjective)
  The adjective INCIPIENT has 1 sense:

1. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed

  Familiarity information: INCIPIENT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCIPIENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Only partly in existence; imperfectly formed

Synonyms:

inchoate; incipient

Context example:

a vague inchoate idea

Similar:

early (being or occurring at an early stage of development)

Derivation:

incipience; incipiency (beginning to exist or to be apparent)

 Context examples 

This bore some resemblance to incipient rigour, and was accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He was clad, I remember, in his flowing brocade dressing-gown, as was his custom before he set off for his club, and his foot was extended upon a stool—for Abernethy had just been in to treat him for an incipient attack of the gout.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose alone sustained me: my labours would soon end, and I believed that exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and I promised myself both of these when my creation should be complete.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)