defective
See also: défective
English
Etymology
From Middle French défectif
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈfɛktɪv/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛktɪv
Adjective
defective (comparative more defective, superlative most defective)
- Having one or more defects.
- 2013 March, Morowitz, Harold J., “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, United States: Sigma Xi, ISSN 0003-0996, OCLC 645082957, page 83:
- It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
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- (grammar, of a lexeme, especially a verb) Lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.
- (Arabic grammar, of a verb) Having a root whose final consonant is weak (ي, و, or ء).
Usage notes
- Nouns to which "defective" is often applied: merchandise, goods, part, component, product, equipment, gene, unit, construction, design, drug, memory, wiring, machine, device, instrument, hardware, software, vehicle.
Synonyms
Translations
having one or more defects
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having only some forms
Noun
defective (plural defectives)
- A person or thing considered to be defective.
- 2007 January 15, Bernard E. Harcourt, “The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars”, in New York Times:
- There were many more kinds of mental institutions at mid-century, ones for “mental defectives and epileptics” and the mentally retarded, psychiatric wards in veterans hospitals, as well as “psychopathic” and private mental hospitals.
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Interlingua
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