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Flaw

1. A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase. This heart Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws. (Shak)

2. A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute. Has not this also its flaws and its dark side? (South)

3. A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel. And deluges of armies from the town Came pouring in; i heard the mighty flaw. (Dryden)

4. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration. Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw. (Milton) Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn. (Tennyson)

Synonym: blemish, fault, imoerfection, spot, speck.

Origin: oe. Flai, flaw flake; cf. Sw. Flaga flaw, crack, breach, flake, D. Vlaag gust of wind, Norw. Flage, flaag, and E. Flag a flat stone.