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Flaw vs Amiss - What's the difference?

flaw | amiss |

In obsolete terms the difference between flaw and amiss

is that flaw is a thin cake, as of ice while amiss is fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.

As a verb flaw

is to add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective.

As an adjective amiss is

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

As an adverb amiss is

mistakenly.

flaw

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) flawe, .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A flake, fragment, or shiver.
  • (obsolete) A thin cake, as of ice.
  • A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion.
    • There is a flaw in that knife.
    That vase has a flaw .
  • * Shakespeare
    • This heart / Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws .
  • A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially one that is hidden.
  • * South
    • Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?
  • A defect or error in a contract or other document which may make the document invalid.
    • a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * tragic flaw

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective.
  • To become imperfect or defective.

    • Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.
  • * Milton
    • Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw .
  • * Tennyson
    • Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn.
  • A storm of short duration.
  • A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel.
  • * Dryden
    • And deluges of armies from the town / Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw .

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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 [...].

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    Anagrams

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