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Defective vs Peccant - What's the difference?

defective | peccant |

As adjectives the difference between defective and peccant

is that defective is having one or more defects while peccant is unhealthy; causing disease.

As nouns the difference between defective and peccant

is that defective is a person considered to be defective while peccant is an offender.

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

    *

    peccant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) unhealthy; causing disease
  • * Francis Bacon
    • peccant humours
  • sinful
  • * Milton
    • peccant angels
  • wrong; defective; faulty
    • (Ayliffe)
  • * 1886 , , The Bostonians .
  • *:Olive rested her eyes for some moments upon Mrs. Luna, without speaking. Then she said: 'Your veil is not put on straight, Adeline.'

    'I look like a monster—that, evidently, is what you mean!' Adeline exclaimed, going to the mirror to rearrange the peccant tissue.

    • Related terms

    * impeccable * peccable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An offender.
    • (Whitlock)

    External links

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