Spoiled vs Defective - What's the difference?
spoiled | defective | Related terms |
(spoil)
Of food, that has deteriorated to the point of no longer being usable or edible.
Having a selfish or greedy character due to pampering.
Having one or more defects.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
, author=
, title=The Smallest Cell
, volume=101, issue=2, page=83
, magazine=
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 adjectives the difference between spoiled and defective
is that spoiled is of food, that has deteriorated to the point of no longer being usable or edible while defective is having one or more defects.As a verb spoiled
is past tense of spoil.As a noun defective is
a person considered to be defective.spoiled
English
Alternative forms
* spoiltVerb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)Usage notes
* Much more common in US than "(spoilt)". * About as common as "spoilt" in UK.Anagrams
* * * * *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