DEFECTIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Defective

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/dɪfˈɛktɪv/ Listen

adjective

Defective adj.

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.

(Gram.) Lacking some of the usual forms of declension or conjugation; as, a defective noun or verb.

noun

Defective n.

Anything that is defective or lacking in some respect.

(Med.) One who is lacking physically or mentally. Note: Under the term defectives are included deaf-mutes, the blind, the feeble-minded, the insane, and sometimes, esp. in criminology, criminals and paupers.

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Etymology of 'Defective'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Defective" Quotes from Famous Books

... is also a bit of a naturalist, as is the author of this book. But some of his inventions have a way of going wrong, as for example when he decides to make the defective church clock work. He takes it all to pieces, cleans all the parts up, and puts it all together again—with the exception of two vital wheels. In the middle of the night the clock's bell begins to strike without cease—the signal ...

— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn

... only for the person he is sent to, but also for most other persons, and Cases he meets with in his Travels, and therefore his Closet needs contain but few, yet noble and generous Medicines, and such as may serve him upon all occasions, supplying what's defective from the Fields or Gardens. He may avoid all pompous, useless, chargable Medicines of the Shops, and substitute in their place, cheaper, and more conducible to health; He may very well lay aside the precious Stones, Saphir, Emerals, &c. the high priced Magistrals of Coral, and ...

— A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries • Christopher Merrett

... from great Roman work, which is wanting in the nice adaption of the means to the end. The means are always exaggerated; the end is so much more than attained. The Roman rigidity was apt to overshoot the mark, and I suppose a race which could do nothing small is as defective as a race that can do nothing great. Of this Roman rigidity the Pont du Gard is an ...

— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 • Various

... dulness and spiritless depression prevailed on every side. Those who were actively engaged around Ciudad Rodrigo had, of course, the excitement and interest which the enterprise involved: but even there the works made slow progress. The breaching artillery was defective in every way: the rain undermined the faces of the bastions; the clayey soil sank beneath the weight of the heavy guns; and the storms of one night frequently destroyed more than a whole ...

— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... unison in Lesson VIII, we stated that "the cause of the waves in a defective unison is the alternate recurring of the periods when the condensations and the rarefactions correspond in the two strings, and then antagonize." This concise definition is complete; but it may not as yet have been fully apprehended. The unison being the simplest interval, ...

— Piano Tuning - A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs • J. Cree Fischer

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