defect
Pronunciation
  • (noun) enPR: dē'fĕkt, IPA: /ˈdiːfɛkt/
  • (verb) enPR: dĭfĕkt', IPA: /dɪˈfɛkt/
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
    • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Goldsmith,_Oliver Goldsmith, Oliver]”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
      Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects.
  2. The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
    • Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
  3. (math) A part by which a figure or quantity is wanting or deficient.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Verb

defect (defects, present participle defecting; 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 ↗," 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.
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: überlaufen
  • Russian: переходи́ть на сто́рону проти́вника



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