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Spy vs Defective - What's the difference?

spy | defective |

As a noun spy

is a person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).

As a verb spy

is to act as a spy.

As an adjective defective is

.

spy

English

Noun

(spies)
  • A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}

    Derived terms

    * spy ring

    Verb

  • To act as a spy.
    • During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.
  • To spot; to catch sight of.
    • I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration.
  • * Latimer
    • Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England.
  • To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
  • * Shakespeare
    • It is my nature's plague / To spy into abuses.
  • To explore; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.
  • * Bible, Numbers xxi. 32
    • Moses sent to spy Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof.

    Derived terms

    * spy on

    Related terms

    * spyglass * spyware

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Noun

  • barf (US), vomit, spew

    • Verb

  • to barf (US), throw up, vomit, spew (also figurative )

    • Synonyms

    * (l)

    References

    * ----

    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

    *