Adjacent Words

Defect definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEFECT, n. [L. To fail; to make or do.]
1. Want or absence of something necessary or useful towards perfection; fault; imperfection.
Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
We say, there are numerous defects in the plan, or in the work, or in the execution.
2. Failing; fault; mistake; imperfection in moral conduct, or in judgment.
A deep conviction of the defects of our lives tends to make us humble.
Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know,
Make use of every friend and every foe.
3. Any want, or imperfection, in natural objects; the absence of any thing necessary to perfection; any thing unnatural or misplaced; blemish; deformity. We speak of a defect in the organs of seeing or hearing, or in a limb; a defect in timber; a defect in an instrument, etc.
DEFECT, v.i. To be deficient.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an imperfection in a bodily system; "visual defects"; "this device permits detection of defects in the lungs"
2: a failing or deficiency; "that interpretation is an unfortunate defect of our lack of information" [syn: defect, shortcoming]
3: an imperfection in an object or machine; "a flaw caused the crystal to shatter"; "if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer" [syn: defect, fault, flaw]
4: a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something (especially on a person's body); "a facial blemish" [syn: blemish, defect, mar] v
1: desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army; "If soldiers deserted Hitler's army, they were shot" [syn: defect, desert]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Latin defectus lack, from deficere to desert, fail, from de- + facere to do — more at do Date: 15th century 1. a. an imperfection that impairs worth or utility ; shortcoming <the grave defects in our foreign policy> b. an imperfection (as a vacancy or an unlike atom) in a crystal lattice 2. [Latin defectus] a lack of something necessary for completeness, adequacy, or perfection ; deficiency <a hearing defect> II. intransitive verb Etymology: Latin defectus, past participle of deficere Date: 1596 1. to forsake one cause, party, or nation for another often because of a change in ideology 2. to leave one situation (as a job) often to go over to a rival <the reporter defected to another network> • defector noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. also 1 lack of something essential or required; imperfection. 2 a shortcoming or failing. 3 a blemish. 4 the amount by which a thing falls short. --v.intr. abandon one's country or cause in favour of another. Derivatives: defector n. Etymology: L defectus f. deficere desert, fail (as DE-, facere do)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Defect De*fect", n. [L. defectus, fr. deficere, defectum, to desert, fail, be wanting; de- + facere to make, do. See Fact, Feat, and cf. Deficit.] 1. Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. --Davies. 2. Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, Make use of every friend -- and every foe. --Pope. Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects. --Macaulay. Syn: Deficiency; imperfection; blemish. See Fault.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Defect De*fect", v. i. To fail; to become deficient. [Obs.] ``Defected honor.'' --Warner.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Defect De*fect", v. t. To injure; to damage. ``None can my life defect.'' [R.] --Troubles of Q. Elizabeth (1639).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(defected) 1. A defect is a fault or imperfection in a person or thing. He was born with a hearing defect. ...a defect in the aircraft caused the crash... = imperfection N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. If you defect, you leave your country, political party, or other group, and join an opposing country, party, or group. He tried to defect to the West last year... ...a KGB officer who defected in 1963. VERB: V to/from n, V • defection (defections) ...the defection of at least sixteen Parliamentary deputies. N-VAR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Deficiency, lack, want, destitution, default. 2. Imperfection, blemish, flaw. 3. Fault, failing, foible. II. v. n. Abandon allegiance, break fealty, desert, revolt, fall away from duty.

Moby Thesaurus

abandon, abnormality, acute disease, affection, affliction, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, apostacize, apostatize, arrearage, atrophy, back out, bacterial disease, betray, birth defect, birthmark, blackhead, bleb, blemish, blight, blister, bolt, break, break away, bug, bulla, cardiovascular disease, catch, change sides, check, chronic disease, cicatrix, circulatory disease, comedo, complaint, complication, condition, congenital defect, crack, crater, craze, dearth, defacement, defalcation, default, defection, deficiency, deficiency disease, deficit, deformation, deformity, degenerate, degenerative disease, depart, desert, disability, discontinuity, disease, disfiguration, disfigurement, disorder, distemper, distortion, drawback, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, epidemic disease, error, escape, failing, failure, fall away, fall off, fault, faute, flaw, foible, forsake, frailty, freckle, functional disease, fungus disease, gap, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, go, go back on, go over, handicap, hemangioma, hereditary disease, hiatus, hickey, hole, iatrogenic disease, illness, imperfection, inadequacy, indisposition, infectious disease, infirmity, insufficiency, interval, irregularity, keloid, kink, lack, lacuna, leave, lentigo, let down, liability, little problem, malady, malaise, mark, milium, miss, missing link, mistake, mole, morbidity, morbus, muscular disease, need, needle scar, neurological disease, nevus, nutritional disease, occupational disease, omission, organic disease, outage, pandemic disease, pathological condition, pathology, pimple, pit, plant disease, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain, privation, problem, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease, pull out, pustule, quit, rat, reject, renegade, renege, renounce, repudiate, respiratory disease, rift, rockiness, run out on, scab, scantiness, scar, scarceness, scarcity, scratch, sebaceous cyst, secede, secondary disease, seediness, sell out, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, sickishness, sickness, signs, snag, something missing, split, spurn, stain, strawberry mark, sty, switch, switch over, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, taint, tergiversate, the pip, track, turn, turn against, turn cloak, turn traitor, twist, ullage, urogenital disease, verruca, vesicle, vice, virus disease, vulnerable place, wale, want, wantage, warp, wart, wasting disease, weak link, weak point, weakness, weal, welt, wen, whitehead, withdraw, worm disease