defecting
- 1Present participle and gerund of defect.
Several athletes were defecting during the international tournament that summer.
Defecting to a rival firm, the engineer carried years of trade secrets with her.
Note
The -ing form belongs only to the verb of shifting loyalty. The noun defect, a fault or shortfall, has no part in it, so defecting never means malfunctioning. Because the verb is intransitive, it takes no direct object: people are defecting from an army or party, or defecting to the enemy, a rival firm or another country. As a gerund it names the act itself: defecting carried real risk.
defecting is a form of defect
defect, verb: To abandon a group such as a political party or military force, switching one's loyalty to the opposing side. Full entry
- Spelling
- defect → defecting: add -ing
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