Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Defective
1.
Wanting in something; incomplete; lacking a part; deficient; imperfect; faulty; – applied either to natural or moral qualities;
as, a
defective
limb; defective
timber; a defective
copy or account; a defective
character; defective
rules.2.
(Gram.)
Lacking some of the usual forms of declension or conjugation;
– as, a
. defective
noun or verbDe-fect′ive-ly
, adv.
De-fect′ive-ness
, Noun.
Webster 1828 Edition
Defective
DEFECTIVE
, a.1.
Wanting either in substance, quantity or quality, or in any thing necessary; imperfect; as a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or book; a defective account. Defective articulation, in speaking, renders utterance indistinct.2.
Wanting in moral qualities; faulty; blamable; not conforming to rectitude or rule; as a defective character.3.
In grammar, a defective noun is one which wants a whole number or a particular case; an indeclinable noun.4.
A defective verb, is one which wants some of the tenses.Definition 2024
defective
defective
See also: défective
English
Adjective
defective (comparative more defective, superlative most defective)
- Having one or more defects.
- 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, 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.
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
Related terms
Translations
having one or more defects
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having only some forms
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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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