Defect

n. [Lat. defectus, from deficere, to desert, fail, be wanting, from de and facere, to make or do; Sp. defecto, It. difetto.]

1Sense 1. Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; fault; imperfection. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. Davies.

2Sense 2. Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; deformity; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber, or in an instrument, &c.; 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.

Synonyms—DEFECT, FAULT. Defect is negative, denoting the absence of that which is necessary to a thing's completeness or perfection; fault is positive, denoting something improper or wrong. The faults of a friend are too often palliated or explained away into mere defects.

He that but conceives a crime in thought, Contrasts the danger of an actual fault. Dryden.