demerit

Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛrɪt

Noun

demerit (plural demerits)

1. ​ A quality of being inadequate; a fault; a disadvantage
2. A mark given for bad conduct to a person attending an educational institution or serving in the army.
   • 2002, Commencement Address at West Point, by G.W.Bush:

     A few of you have followed in the path of the perfect West Point graduate, Robert E. Lee, who never received a single demerit in four years. Some of you followed in the path of the imperfect graduate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had his fair share of demerits, and said the happiest day of his life was "the day I left West Point." (Laughter.)

Antonyms

• merit

Derived terms

• demerit point

Translations

quality of being inadequate

• Bulgarian: недостатък
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短處 (cmn), 短处 (cmn) (duănchu), 缺點 (cmn), 缺点 (cmn) (quēdiăn)

• Dutch: tekortkoming (nl)
• Finnish: haitta (fi)

• German: Nachteil (de) m
• Italian: demerito (it) m
• Japanese: 短所 (tansho), 欠点 (ketten), デメリット
• Russian: недостаток (ru) (nedostatok) m, изъян (ru) (izʺjan) m
• Swedish: nackdel (sv) c, brist (sv)

mark for bad conduct

• Russian: взыскание (ru) (vzyskánije) n, выговор (ru) (výgovor) m

Verb

demerit (third-person singular simple present demerits, present participle demeriting, simple past and past participle demerited)

1. (transitive, archaic) To deserve.
   • 1840, Alexander Campbell, Dolphus Skinner, A discussion of the doctrines of the endless misery and universal salvation (page 351)

     You hold that every sin is an infinite evil, demeriting endless punishment.

Anagrams

• dimeter
• merited
• mitered