defect

English

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defect

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle French defaicte, from Latin defectus (“a failure, lack”), from deficere (“to fail, lack, literally 'undo'”), from past participle defectus, from de- (“priv.”) + facere (“to do”).

Pronunciation

• (noun) enPR: dē'fĕkt, IPA^(key): /ˈdiːfɛkt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (verb) enPR: dĭfĕkt', IPA^(key): /dɪˈfɛkt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Noun

defect (plural defects)

1. A fault or malfunction.

   a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment

   • 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

     Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects.

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎:

     But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 4:

     Another major defect of the current literature dealing with the nomenclature of hybrid forms of English is the scant attention paid to the question of frequency.

2. The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
   • 1824, Lydia Sigourney, Sketch of Connecticut:

     and the indefatigable application with which they have supplied the defects of early culture.

3. (mathematics) A part by which a figure or quantity is wanting or deficient.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:defect

Derived terms

Related terms

• defective
• defeat
• deficiency
• deficient
• deficit

Collocations

Descendants

Translations

Verb

defect (third-person singular simple present defects, present participle defecting, simple past and past participle defected)

1. (intransitive) To abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.
   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 May 2013:

     Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect. In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.”

2. (military) To desert one's army, to flee from combat.
3. (military) To join the enemy army.
4. (law) To flee one's country and seek asylum.
   • 2015 August 15, Choe Sang-Hun, “A North Korean Defector’s Regret”, in The New York Times‎, retrieved 20 September 2015:

     Passing through Thailand, she submitted a handwritten statement agreeing to defect, a requirement for North Korean refugees to be allowed to enter the South.

Derived terms

• defection
• defector
• redefect

Translations

Further reading

• “defect”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “defect”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēfectus, dēfectum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deːˈfɛkt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧fect
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Adjective

defect (comparative defecter, superlative defectst)

1. broken, not working

Inflection

Synonyms

• kapot

Descendants

• Petjo: defèk

Noun

defect n (plural defecten, diminutive defectje n)

1. A defect.

Descendants

• → Indonesian: défèk

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin defectus or German Defekt.

Adjective

defect m or n (feminine singular defectă, masculine plural defecți, feminine and neuter plural defecte)

1. defective

Declension

Noun

defect n (plural defecte)

1. defect

Declension