defective
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Adjective [edit]
defective (comparative more defective, superlative most defective)
- Having one or more defects.
- 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, 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.
- 2013 March 1, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83:
- (grammar, of a verb) lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.
Usage notes [edit]
- 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 [edit]
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
having one or more defects
having only some tenses
Noun [edit]
defective (plural defectives)
- A person considered to be defective.
- 2007 January 15, Bernard E. Harcourt, “The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars”, 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.
- 2007 January 15, Bernard E. Harcourt, “The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars”, New York Times:
