Entire, a.
Etymology: [F. entier, L. integer untouched, undiminished, entire; pref. in-, negative + the root of tangere to touch. See Tangent, and cf. Integer.]
1. Complete in all parts; undivided; undiminished; whole; full and perfect; not deficient; as, the entire control of a business; entire confidence, ignorance. That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i. 4. With strength entire and free will armed. Milton. One entire and perfect chrysolite. Shak.
2. Without mixture or alloy of anything; unqualified; morally whole; pure; faithful. Pure fear and entire cowardice. Shak. No man had ever a heart more entire to the king. Clarendon.
3. (Bot.) (a) Consisting of a single piece, as a corolla. (b) Having an evenly continuous edge, as a leaf which has no kind of teeth.
4. Not gelded; -- said of a horse.
2 more senses
5. Internal; interior. [Obs.] Spenser.
Syn. -- See Whole, and Radical.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Entire, n.
1. Entirely. "Too long to print in entire." Thackeray.
2. (Brewing)
A name originally given to a kind of beer combining qualities of different kinds of beer. [Eng.] "Foker's Entire." Thackeray.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for entire; he lists it under perfect, radical.
Where he writes about it:
That is perfect to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be taken without impairing its excellence, marring its symmetry, or detracting from its worth; in this fullest sense God alone is perfect, but in a limited sense anything may be perfect in its kind; as a perfect flower; a copy of a document is perfect when it is accurate in every particular; a vase may be called perfect when entire and unblemished, even tho not artistically faultless; the best judges never pronounce a work of art perfect, because they see always ideal possibilities not yet attained; even the ideal is not perfect, by reason of the imperfection of the human mind; a human character faultlessly holy would be morally perfect tho finite. — from perfect
The widely divergent senses in which the word radical is used, by which it can be at some time interchanged with any word in the above list, are all formed upon the one primary sense of having to do with or proceeding from the root (L. radix); a radical difference is one that springs from the root, and is thus constitutional, essential, fundamental, organic, original; a radical change is one that does not stop at the surface, but reaches down to the very root, and is entire, thorough, total; since the majority find superficial treatment of any matter the easiest and most comfortable, radical measures, which strike at the root of evil or need, are apt to be looked upon as extreme. — from radical