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Amiss vs Defective - What's the difference?

amiss | defective |

As adjectives the difference between amiss and defective

is that amiss is wrong; faulty; out of order; improper; as, it may not be amiss to ask advice while defective is .

As an adverb amiss

is (archaic) mistakenly.

As a noun amiss

is (obsolete) fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.

amiss

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Wrong; faulty; out of order; improper; as, it may not be amiss to ask advice.
    • He suspected something was amiss .
    Something amiss in the arrangements had distracted the staff.
  • * Wollaston
    • His wisdom and virtue cannot always rectify that which is amiss in himself or his circumstances.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (archaic) Mistakenly
  • (archaic) Astray
  • (archaic) Wrongly.

    • Noun

    (amisses)
  • (obsolete) Fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
    • Now by my head (said Guyon) much I muse, / How that same knight should do so foule amis [...].
  • * 1635 , John Donne, "His parting from her":
    • Yet Love, thou'rt blinder then thy self in this, / To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss [...].

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * *

    defective

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having one or more defects.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
    • , author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= citation , passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}
  • lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.

    • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "defective" is often applied: merchandise, goods, part, component, product, equipment, gene, unit, construction, design, drug, memory, wiring, machine, device, instrument, hardware, software, vehicle.

    Synonyms

    * faulty

    Related terms

    * defect * defection * defector * deficiency * deficient * deficit

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person considered to be defective.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2007, date=January 15, author=Bernard E. Harcourt, title=The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=There were many more kinds of mental institutions at mid-century, ones for “mental defectives and epileptics” and the mentally retarded, psychiatric wards in veterans hospitals, as well as “psychopathic” and private mental hospitals. }}

    See also

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