The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Defect \De*fect"\, v. t.
   To injure; to damage. "None can my life defect." [R.]
   --Troubles of Q. Elizabeth (1639).
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Defect \De*fect"\, n. [L. defectus, fr. deficere, defectum, to
   desert, fail, be wanting; de- + facere to make, do. See
   Fact, Feat, and cf. Deficit.]
   1. Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or
      perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity.
      [1913 Webster]

            Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
                                                  --Davies.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

            Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know,
            Make use of every friend -- and every foe. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

            Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal
            defects.                              --Macaulay.

   Syn: Deficiency; imperfection; blemish. See Fault.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Defect \De*fect"\, v. i.
   To fail; to become deficient. [Obs.] "Defected honor."
   --Warner.
   [1913 Webster]

   2. to abandon one country or faction, and join another.
      [PJC]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

223 Moby Thesaurus words for "defect":
   abandon, abnormality, acute disease, affection, affliction,
   ailment, allergic disease, allergy, apostacize, apostatize,
   arrearage, atrophy, back out, bacterial disease, betray,
   birth defect, birthmark, blackhead, bleb, blemish, blight, blister,
   bolt, break, break away, bug, bulla, cardiovascular disease, catch,
   change sides, check, chronic disease, cicatrix,
   circulatory disease, comedo, complaint, complication, condition,
   congenital defect, crack, crater, craze, dearth, defacement,
   defalcation, default, defection, deficiency, deficiency disease,
   deficit, deformation, deformity, degenerate, degenerative disease,
   depart, desert, disability, discontinuity, disease, disfiguration,
   disfigurement, disorder, distemper, distortion, drawback, endemic,
   endemic disease, endocrine disease, epidemic disease, error,
   escape, failing, failure, fall away, fall off, fault, faute, flaw,
   foible, forsake, frailty, freckle, functional disease,
   fungus disease, gap, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, go,
   go back on, go over, handicap, hemangioma, hereditary disease,
   hiatus, hickey, hole, iatrogenic disease, illness, imperfection,
   inadequacy, indisposition, infectious disease, infirmity,
   insufficiency, interval, irregularity, keloid, kink, lack, lacuna,
   leave, lentigo, let down, liability, little problem, malady,
   malaise, mark, milium, miss, missing link, mistake, mole,
   morbidity, morbus, muscular disease, need, needle scar,
   neurological disease, nevus, nutritional disease,
   occupational disease, omission, organic disease, outage,
   pandemic disease, pathological condition, pathology, pimple, pit,
   plant disease, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain,
   privation, problem, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease,
   pull out, pustule, quit, rat, reject, renegade, renege, renounce,
   repudiate, respiratory disease, rift, rockiness, run out on, scab,
   scantiness, scar, scarceness, scarcity, scratch, sebaceous cyst,
   secede, secondary disease, seediness, sell out, shortage,
   shortcoming, shortfall, sickishness, sickness, signs, snag,
   something missing, split, spurn, stain, strawberry mark, sty,
   switch, switch over, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms,
   syndrome, taint, tergiversate, the pip, track, turn, turn against,
   turn cloak, turn traitor, twist, ullage, urogenital disease,
   verruca, vesicle, vice, virus disease, vulnerable place, wale,
   want, wantage, warp, wart, wasting disease, weak link, weak point,
   weakness, weal, welt, wen, whitehead, withdraw, worm disease



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DEFECT. The want of something required by law.
     2. It is a general rule that pleadings shall have these two requisites;
1. A matter sufficient in law. 2. That it be deduced and expressed according
to the forms of law. The want of either of these is a defect.
     3. Defects in matters of substance cannot be cured, because it does not
appear that the plaintiff is entitled to recover; but when the defects are
in matter of form, they are cured by a verdict in favor of the party who
committed them. 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 3292; 2 Wash. 1; 1 Hen. & Munf. 153; 16
Pick. 128, 541; 1 Day, 315; 4 Conn, 190; 5 Conn. 416; 6 Conn. 176; 12 Conn.
455; 1 P. C. C. R. 76; 2 Green, 133; 4 Blackf. 107; 2 M'Lean, 35; Bac. Ab.
Verdict, X.