defunct

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēfunctus, past participle of dēfungor (“to finish, discharge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈfʌŋkt/
• (US) also IPA^(key): /ˌdiˈfʌŋkt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋkt

Adjective

defunct (comparative more defunct, superlative most defunct)

1. (now rare) Deceased, dead.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The organs, though defunct and dead before, / Break up their drowsy grave and newly move

   • 1820 February (date written; published 30 July 1823), Luigi Pulci, “The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci”, in Lord Byron, transl., The Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron , New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published November 1907, →OCLC, canto I, stanza LXIII, page 560, column 2:

     Morgante at a venture shot an arrow, / Which pierced a pig precisely in the ear, / And passed unto the other side quite through; / So that the boar, defunct, lay tripped up near.

2. No longer in use or active, nor expected to be again.
   • 1880 January 1, The Locomotive, volume 1, number 1, Hartford, Conn.: The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection And Insurance Company, page 9:

     [T]he engineer must solve the mysteries of boiler accidents by studying defunct structures of many different types.

   1. (business) No longer in business or service, nor expected to be again.
3. (computing) Specifically, of a process: having terminated but not having been reaped (by its parent or an inheritor), and thus still occupying a process slot. See also zombie, zombie process.
4. (linguistics) (of a language) No longer spoken.
   • 2007, J. N. Adams, “The Republic: inscriptions”, in The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600, Cambridge University Press, page 105:

     When a language dies members of the culture of which that language was once a part may attempt to hold on to their linguistic heritage, if not by the use of the defunct language itself, at least by the preservation of its script.

Synonyms

• (no longer in use): antiquated, disused, outdated; see also Thesaurus:obsolete

Translations

Verb

defunct (third-person singular simple present defuncts, present participle defuncting, simple past and past participle defuncted)

1. To make defunct.

Noun

defunct

1. The dead person (referred to).
   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 23:

     A small tablet is fixt near the Altar, upon w^ch the friends of y^e defunct lay their offerings in mony according to their own ability and the quality of the person deceased.

   • 1817 September, in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, volume 1, page 617:

     he saw Robert Johnston, pannel, come out of the cott-house with the fork in his hand, and pass by Alexander Fall and the deponent; heard the pannell say, he had sticked the dog, and he would stick the whelps too; whereupon the pannell run after the defunct’s son with the fork in his hand,

Related terms

• function
• bankrupt

Translations

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French défunt.

Noun

defunct m (plural defuncți)

1. deceased

Declension