Handicap vs Defective - What's the difference?
handicap | defective |
Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.
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*:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success.
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(lb) The disadvantage itself, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people.
A race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
An old card game.
:(Samuel Pepys)
To encumber with a handicap in any contest.
(by extension) To place at disadvantage.
To estimate betting odds.
Having one or more defects.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
, author=
, title=The Smallest Cell
, volume=101, issue=2, page=83
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lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.
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
, 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. }}
As a noun handicap
is something that prevents, hampers, or hinders.As a verb handicap
is to encumber with a handicap in any contest.As an adjective defective is
.handicap
English
Noun
(en noun)Derived terms
* Benghazi HandicapVerb
(handicapp)- The candidate was heavily handicapped .
- Grandpa Andy would buy the racing form the day ahead of time so he could handicap the race before he even arrived at the track.
defective
English
Adjective
(en adjective)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.}}
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
* faultyNoun
(en noun)citation