[syn: flaw, blemish]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Flaw \Flaw\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flawed; p. pr. & vb. n.
Flawing.]
1. To crack; to make flaws in.
[1913 Webster]
The brazen caldrons with the frosts are flawed.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. To break; to violate; to make of no effect. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
France hath flawed the league. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
This heart
Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a
will, in a deed, or in a statute.
[1913 Webster]
Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?
--South.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
4. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.
[1913 Webster]
Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn. --Tennyson.
Syn: Blemish; fault; imperfection; spot; speck.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
flaw
n 1: an imperfection in an object or machine; "a flaw caused the
crystal to shatter"; "if there are any defects you should
send it back to the manufacturer" [syn: defect, fault,
flaw]
2: defect or weakness in a person's character; "he had his
flaws, but he was great nonetheless"
3: an imperfection in a plan or theory or legal document that
causes it to fail or that reduces its effectiveness
v 1: add a flaw or blemish to; make imperfect or defective [syn:
flaw, blemish]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
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