defect

plural defects

1. A fault or malfunction.

   a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment

   3 more examples

   Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects.

   1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC

   But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

   2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)

   Another major defect of the current literature dealing with the nomenclature of hybrid forms of English is the scant attention paid to the question of frequency.

   2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 4

2. The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.

   and the indefatigable application with which they have supplied the defects of early culture.

   1824, Lydia Sigourney, Sketch of Connecticut

3. mathematicsA part by which a figure or quantity is wanting or deficient.

present singular third person defects · participle present defecting · participle past defected · past defected

1. intransitiveTo abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.

   1 more example

   Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect. In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.”

   2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 May 2013

2. governmentTo desert one's army, to flee from combat.
3. governmentTo join the enemy army.
4. lawTo flee one's country and seek asylum.

   Passing through Thailand, she submitted a handwritten statement agreeing to defect, a requirement for North Korean refugees to be allowed to enter the South.

   2015 August 15, Choe Sang-Hun, “A North Korean Defector’s Regret”, in The New York Times, retrieved 20 Sep 2015