Adjacent Words

Deficient definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEFICIENT, a.
1. Wanting; defective; imperfect; not sufficient or adequate; as deficient estate; deficient strength.
2. Wanting; not having a full or adequate supply; as, the country may be deficient in the means of carrying on war.
Deficient numbers, in arithmetic, are those numbers, whose parts, added together, make less than the integer, whose parts they are.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: inadequate in amount or degree; "a deficient education"; "deficient in common sense"; "lacking in stamina"; "tested and found wanting" [syn: deficient, lacking, wanting]
2: of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement; "insufficient funds" [syn: insufficient, deficient] [ant: sufficient]
3: falling short of some prescribed norm; "substandard housing" [syn: deficient, inferior, substandard]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin deficient-, deficiens, present participle of deficere to be wanting — more at defect Date: 1581 1. lacking in some necessary quality or element <deficient in judgment> 2. not up to a normal standard or complement ; defective <deficient strength> • deficiently adverb II. noun Date: 1906 one that is deficient <a mental deficient>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 (usu. foll. by in) incomplete; not having enough of a specified quality or ingredient. 2 insufficient in quantity, force, etc. 3 (in full mentally deficient) incapable of adequate social or intellectual behaviour through imperfect mental development. Derivatives: deficiently adv. Etymology: L deficiens part. of deficere (as DEFECT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Deficient De*fi"cient, a. [L. deficiens, -entis, p. pr. of deficere to be wanting. See Defect.] Wanting, to make up completeness; wanting, as regards a requirement; not sufficient; inadequate; defective; imperfect; incomplete; lacking; as, deficient parts; deficient estate; deficient strength; deficient in judgment. The style was indeed deficient in ease and variety. --Macaulay. Deficient number. (Arith.) See under Abundant. -- De*fi"cient-ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If someone or something is deficient in a particular thing, they do not have the full amount of it that they need in order to function normally or work properly. (FORMAL) ...a diet deficient in vitamin B. = lacking ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, usu ADJ in n • Deficient is also a combining form. Vegetarians can become iron-deficient. COMB in ADJ 2. Someone or something that is deficient is not good enough for a particular purpose. (FORMAL) ...deficient landing systems. = inadequate ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Defective, insufficient, imperfect, incomplete, inadequate, unsatisfactory.

Moby Thesaurus

adulterated, amiss, arrested, bad, base, blemished, botched, bungling, callow, clumsy, damaged, defective, embryonic, erroneous, failing, fallible, faulty, flawed, found wanting, half-assed, haphazard, hit-and-miss, hit-or-miss, hypoplastic, immature, impaired, imperfect, imprecise, impure, in arrear, in arrears, in default, in short supply, in want of, inaccurate, inadequate, incompetent, incomplete, inexact, infant, inferior, infrequent, injured, insufficient, lacking, little, makeshift, maladroit, marred, mean, mediocre, messy, minus, missing, mixed, needing, not comparable, not enough, not in it, not perfect, off, out of it, part, partial, patchy, petty, promiscuous, rare, scant, scanty, scarce, scrappy, scrimpy, shabby, short, short of, shy, sketchy, skimpy, slipshod, slipshoddy, sloppy, slovenly, sluttish, small, too little, trivial, uncommon, underdeveloped, undeveloped, unequal to, uneven, unfinished, unperfected, unqualified, unreached, unsatisfactory, unsatisfying, unskillful, unsound, unsufficing, unthorough, untidy, wanting