I. de ‧ fect 1 /dɪˈfekt, ˈdiːfekt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin defectus 'lack' , from defectus , past participle of deficere 'to go away from, fail, lack' ]
a fault or a lack of something that means that something or someone is not perfect:
All the cars are tested for defects before they leave the factory.
a genetic defect
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COLLOCATIONS
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + defect
▪ a serious defect
The movie has a few serious defects.
▪ a major defect (=very serious)
They have found a major defect in the program.
▪ a slight/minor defect
There are one or two minor defects on the car’s paintwork.
▪ a physical defect
Doctors examined the baby and could find no physical defects.
▪ a structural defect
Older buildings are bound to have some structural defects.
▪ a genetic/inherited defect (=one that is passed to you in your genes)
The condition is caused by a genetic defect.
▪ a birth defect (=one that you are born with)
About 11% of children have birth defects.
▪ a heart defect
Laura was born with a rare heart defect.
▪ a speech defect (=an incorrect way of saying certain sounds)
He had a speech defect which made it quite difficult to understand him.
▪ a character defect (=a fault in your character)
Laziness was just one of his character defects.
■ verbs
▪ have a defect
The old system had some serious defects.
▪ correct a defect
She had surgery to correct a defect in her right eye.
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THESAURUS
■ something wrong
▪ fault a problem in a machine, system, design etc that causes damage or makes it not work properly:
The fire was caused by an electrical fault.
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a fault in the engine
▪ defect a fault in something such as a product or machine, resulting from the way it was made or designed:
Cars are tested for defects before they leave the factory.
▪ weakness a part of a plan, system, or argument that is not as good as the other parts, and makes it likely to fail:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each method?
▪ flaw a fault in a plan, system, argument etc, especially one that makes it useless or not effective:
Your argument has a fundamental flaw.
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There was one major flaw in his suggestion – we didn’t have enough money.
▪ bug a fault in a computer program:
A bug in the system was quickly fixed.
▪ glitch a small fault in the way something works, that can usually be easily corrected:
I noticed a small glitch when installing the software.
▪ mistake something that is wrong in someone’s spelling, grammar, calculations etc:
The article was full of spelling mistakes.
▪ there’s something wrong with something used when saying that there is a problem in a machine, car etc, but you do not know what it is:
There’s something wrong with the computer – it won’t close down.
II. defect 2 /dɪˈfekt/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: defectus , past participle; ⇨ ↑ defect 1 ]
to leave your own country or group in order to go to or join an opposing one
defect to/from
a Russian actor who defected to the West
—defector noun [countable]
—defection /dɪˈfekʃ ə n/ noun [uncountable and countable]