flaw

From Middle English flawe, flay (“a flake of fire or snow, spark, splinter”), probably from Old Norse flaga (“a flag or slab of stone, flake”), from Proto-Germanic *flagō (“a layer of soil”), from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“broad, flat”). Cognate with Icelandic flaga (“flake”), Swedish flaga (“flake, scale”), Danish flage (“flake”), Middle Low German vlage (“a layer of soil”), Old English flōh (“a frament, piece”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈflɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈflɔ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈflɑ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː
• Homophone: floor (in non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)

flaw (plural flaws)

1. (obsolete) A flake, fragment, or shiver.
2. (obsolete) A thin cake, as of ice.
3. A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion.

   There is a flaw in that knife.

   That vase has a flaw.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     This heart / Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws.

4. A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially one that is hidden.
   • (Can we date this quote?) South

     Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?

   1. (in particular) An inclusion, stain, or other defect of a diamond or other gemstone.
5. (law) A defect or error in a contract or other document which may make the document invalid or ineffective.

   a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute

• See also Thesaurus:defect

• flawful
• flawless
• flawsome
• tragic flaw

flaw (third-person singular simple present flaws, present participle flawing, simple past and past participle flawed)

1. (transitive) To add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective.
2. (intransitive) To become imperfect or defective; to crack or break.

• IPA^(key): /ˈflɔː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː

flaw (plural flaws)

1. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Tennyson

     Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn.

2. A storm of short duration.
3. A sudden burst of noise and disorder

   Synonyms: tumult, uproar, quarrel

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     And deluges of armies from the town / Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw.

• AFLW, WAFL

flaw

1. To faint.