flaw
Pluralflaws
Pluralflaws
- 1A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially a hidden one.
A hidden flaw in the casting caused the part to fail under pressure.
Critics pointed to a fundamental flaw in the argument's logic.
Similardefect, fault, imperfection, weakness, shortcoming
Note
The crack becomes a figure for any fault in a thing, an argument or a character. The weight falls on hidden: a flaw is often found only on closer inspection, which is why Robert South can set a thing's flaws beside "its dark side". Vice is an older near-synonym, used in the sense of an inherent defect rather than wickedness.
- 2A crack, gap, or split in something, where it is broken or does not hold together.
Geologists found a flaw running deep through the granite face.
The weld contained a hairline flaw that widened under stress.
Similarcrack, fissure, fracture, fault, split
Note
Here the word turns from the piece to the break between pieces. Shakespeare's King Lear stands close to the older meaning: a heart that will "break into a hundred thousand flaws" shatters into fragments. The crack in a knife or vase is the everyday use. The sense stays physical, a fissure you could in principle see, and that is what separates it from the wider sense of a fault.
- 3A defect in a diamond or other gem, such as a stain or an inclusion of foreign material.
A single flaw near the table of the diamond lowered its price considerably.
Under the loupe, the gem revealed flaws invisible to the unaided eye.
Similarinclusion, blemish, imperfection
- 4A defect or error in a contract or other document that may render it invalid or ineffective.
A drafting flaw in the lease allowed the tenant to walk away.
The court set aside the will because of a flaw in how it was witnessed.
Similardefect, error, irregularity, loophole
Note
Law narrows the defect to a written instrument: a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute. It names a fault in the document itself, such as a drafting error or a slip in how it was executed. Its effect is conditional. A flaw may make the instrument invalid or ineffective, but it is a ground for challenge rather than a verdict. Vice is used in the same sense.
- 5To make something imperfect or defective by introducing a fault.
A single bad brushstroke can flaw an otherwise perfect painting.
The intense heat flawed the glass as it cooled.
Similarmar, spoil, damage, crack, blemish
Oppositeperfect
Note
The verb comes in a neat pair. Here someone or something flaws an object, while in its intransitive partner the object flaws by itself. The past participle flawed carries this sense into adjective position, as in a flawed plan or a flawed casting, and it is that form, not the bare verb, that most often appears before a noun.
- 6
- 7A sudden burst or gust of wind lasting only a short time.
A sharp flaw caught the sails and heeled the yacht hard over.
The sailors braced as flaws swept across the harbor.
Similargust, squall, blast, puff
Oppositelull
Note
This is a different word that happens to share the spelling. It comes from Middle Dutch vlāghe or Middle Low German vlāge, or perhaps from Swedish flaga, "gust of wind", all from a root meaning "blow, strike"; modern Dutch vlaag is a cousin. Poets kept it alive: Milton has "stormie gust and flaw" in Paradise Lost (1667), and Tennyson has flaws "laying lusty corn" (1859). Windflaw keeps it from being misread as a defect.
- 8
- 9A sudden outbreak of noise and disorder.
A flaw of jeering rose from the back of the hall.
The verdict triggered a flaw of uproar in the gallery.
Similaruproar, tumult, quarrel
Note
The gust turned human: a sudden outbreak of noise and commotion, a tumult, uproar or quarrel. In Dryden's Aureng-zebe (1675), the speaker hears "the mighty flaw" as armies pour into the town. Because it shares the origin of the gust-of-wind sense, it means a blast of sound and disorder, never a fault in it.
Less common meanings
- 10A flake, fragment, or thin splinter.
He brushed a flaw of slate from his sleeve.
Flaws of dried clay crumbled from the old wall.
Note
The oldest picture behind the word is Middle English flawe, a flake of fire or snow, a spark or splinter. It probably comes from Old Norse flaga, a slab or flake of stone, and further back from a root meaning "broad, flat". Now obsolete, it would be flake or chip today. Yet every "defect" meaning of the word grows from it: a crack is where the flakes come apart.
- 11A thin cake or sheet, such as of ice.
A thin flaw of ice had formed over the water trough overnight.
Flaws of ice drifted along the slow river in early spring.
Note
Ice shows the flat root behind the "flake" sense most clearly: the flaw here is a broad, thin layer rather than a chip. Like that sense, it is obsolete, and current English uses sheet, skin or crust of ice for the same picture. In older writing, then, a flaw of ice is the thin covering itself, not a crack running through it.
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Practice
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Origins
From Middle English flawe or flay ("a flake of fire or snow, spark, splinter"), probably from Old Norse flaga ("a slab of stone, flake"), from Proto-Germanic *flagō and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *plok- ("broad, flat"). It is cognate with Icelandic and Swedish flaga ("flake") and Old English flōh ("a fragment").
From Middle English *flaugh, from Middle Dutch vlāghe or Middle Low German vlāge, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *flagā. Alternatively it may be of North Germanic origin, from Swedish flaga ("gust of wind") and Old Norse flaga, all from Proto-Germanic *flagǭ ("blow, strike"); compare modern Dutch vlaag ("gust of wind").