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Defect

1. Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; opposed to superfluity. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. (Davies)

2. Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, make use of every friend any every foe. (Pope) Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects. (Macaulay)

Synonym: deficiency, imperfection, blemish. See fault.

Origin: L. Defectus, fr. Deficere, defectum, to desert, fail, be wanting; de- _ facere = to make, do. See Fact, Feat, and cf. Deficit.