Flaw

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Flaw \Flaw\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Flawed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Flawing}.]
     1. To crack; to make flaws in.
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              The brazen caldrons with the frosts are flawed.


                                                    --Dryden.
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     2. To break; to violate; to make of no effect. [Obs.]
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              France hath flawed the league.        --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Flaw \Flaw\ (fl[add]), n. [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.]
     1. A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of
        continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase.
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              This heart
              Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws. --Shak.
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     2. A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a
        will, in a deed, or in a statute.
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              Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?
                                                    --South.
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     3. A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a
        quarrel. [Obs.]
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              And deluges of armies from the town
              Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw. --Dryden.
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     4. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.
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              Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw. --Milton.
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              Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn. --Tennyson.
  
     Syn: Blemish; fault; imperfection; spot; speck.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  flaw
       n 1: an imperfection in a device or machine; "if there are any
            defects you should send it back to the manufacturer"
            [syn: {defect}, {fault}]
       2: defect or weakness in a person's character; "he had his
          flaws, but he was great nonetheless"
       v : add a flaw or blemish to; make imperfect or defective [syn:
           {blemish}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  217 Moby Thesaurus words for "flaw":
     aberrancy, aberration, abysm, abyss, arroyo, bad habit,
     besetting sin, birthmark, black mark, blackhead, blast, bleb,
     blemish, blister, blot, blow, box canyon, breach, break, bug,
     bulla, canyon, catch, cavity, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink,
     chip, cicatrix, cicatrize, cleavage, cleft, cleuch, clough, col,
     comedo, coulee, couloir, crack, cranny, crater, craze, crevasse,
     crevice, cut, cwm, damage, deface, defacement, defect, defection,
     defectiveness, deficiency, defile, deform, deformation, deformity,
     dell, delusion, deviancy, dike, discredit, disfiguration,
     disfigure, disfigurement, distort, distortion, ditch, donga, draw,
     drawback, errancy, erroneousness, error, excavation, failing,
     failure, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, fault,
     faultiness, faute, fissure, flawedness, flume, flurry, foible,
     fracture, frailty, freckle, furrow, gap, gape, gash, gorge, groove,
     gulch, gulf, gully, gust, hamartia, harm, hemangioma, heresy,
     heterodoxy, hickey, hole, hurt, illusion, imperfection, inadequacy,
     incision, infirmity, joint, keloid, kink, kloof, leak, lentigo,
     little problem, loophole, mar, mark, milium, misapplication,
     misconstruction, misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation,
     misjudgment, mistake, moat, mole, moral flaw, needle scar, nevus,
     notch, nullah, opening, pass, passage, peccancy, perforation,
     perversion, pimple, pit, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark,
     port-wine stain, problem, puncture, pustule, ravine, rent, rift,
     rime, rip, ruin, rupture, scab, scar, scarify, scissure, scratch,
     scud, seam, sebaceous cyst, self-contradiction, shortcoming, sin,
     sinfulness, slit, slot, snag, something missing, split, spoil,
     stain, stigmatize, strawberry mark, sty, taint, tear, track,
     trench, twist, unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness,
     valley, verruca, vesicle, vice, void, vulnerable place, wadi, wale,
     warp, wart, weak link, weak point, weak side, weaken, weakness,
     weal, welt, wen, whitehead, wind gust, wrong, wrongness