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Traitor vs Defect - What's the difference?

traitor | defect |

As nouns the difference between traitor and defect

is that traitor is traitor while defect is a fault or malfunction.

As a verb defect is

to abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.

traitor

English

Alternative forms

* traitour (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who violates his allegiance and betrays his/her country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place intrusted to his defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; also, one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country.
  • Hence, one who betrays any confidence or trust.

    • Synonyms

    *(one who betrays a confidence or trust) betrayer, fink

    See also

    * Benedict Arnold * Quisling * Judas

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To act the traitor toward; to betray; to deceive.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • traitorous
    • (Spenser)
    (Alexander Pope)

    defect

    English

    (wikipedia defect)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fault or malfunction.
    • a defect''' in the ear or eye; a '''defect''' in timber or iron; a '''defect of memory or judgment
  • * Macaulay
    • Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects .
  • * '>citation
  • The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
  • * Davies
    • Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
  • (math) A part by which a figure or quantity is wanting or deficient.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    * deficiency * deficient * deficit * defective

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.
  • * 2013 May 23, , " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):
    • Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect . In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.”

    Derived terms

    * defection * defector

    External links

    * * English heteronyms ----