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What is "flaw"

Crossword clues for flaw

flaw
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
flaw
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a design fault/flaw (=a part of something that does not work well or look good)
▪ If a washing-machine makes too much noise, it’s a design fault.
a fundamental flaw (=fault that makes something imperfect)
▪ There is a fundamental flaw in the current tax system.
fatal flaw (=serious weakness)
▪ There was one fatal flaw in his argument.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
basic
▪ Even if we accept the underlying private enterprise philosophy of Making Belfast Work, some basic flaws exist.
▪ It is always useful to consider ways to overcome any basic flaws in an evaluation procedure.
▪ If hon. Members plan to refer to that document, it would be helpful if they addressed its basic flaws.
fatal
▪ His reconstruction of the crimes had suffered from one fatal flaw.
▪ Many have argued that one of the fatal flaws a manager can have is unwillingness or inability to delegate.
▪ False percentages A fatal flaw in using percentages is to try and add them up when this is not really possible.
▪ She warns of thirst for knowledge tipping over into dangerous greed, and of youthful promise lost for one fatal flaw.
▪ The Arts: The curse of having good taste Joe Boyd has a fatal flaw: he has taste.
▪ But there is a fatal flaw in such policies: they assume that all cultures are equal in power.
▪ Yet yesterday's report, which highlighted fatal flaws in the system, showed that was clearly not the case.
▪ There were three fatal flaws to the Chancellor's strategy.
fundamental
▪ I think you may have a fundamental flaw in your thought processes.
▪ It attacks the fundamental flaws and loopholes in the campaign finance regulatory system adopted in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
▪ However, those exemptions and discounts merely reinforce the fundamental flaw at the centre of the council tax.
▪ Some people see this as a fundamental flaw in the whole theory of the blind watchmaker.
▪ But there were two fundamental flaws in the Covenant.
▪ Partnership is one of the fundamental flaws of football.
major
▪ There was one major flaw in this inspired scheme, no Provision was made for maintenance or replacement.
▪ One of the major flaws in the existing system is that the prosecutor has immunity from law suits claiming malicious prosecution.
▪ Some top cops say this terrifying news exposes major flaws in the current register system.
▪ With these words of faint praise, Maskelyne tactfully conceded a few major flaws in the lunar distance method.
▪ In the post-war period some democratic elitists detected a major flaw in this notion of bureaucratic rationality.
▪ The example also serves to expose the major flaw in Kleinig's account.
▪ On the issue of tempered curiosity, we encounter one of the major flaws, by modern standards, of the Presocratics.
minor
▪ Though the court view is rendered well and rotates smoothly, there is one minor flaw.
serious
▪ However, this analogy possesses two serious flaws.
▪ In general, any new cryptosystem could harbor serious flaws that are discovered only after years of scrutiny by cryptographers.
▪ Expert reveals serious flaws in museum and gallery security.
▪ Globalisation, accelerated by the internet, is exposing serious flaws in the world's tax systems.
▪ Remember your ideas may have a serious flaw.
▪ The Maastricht process contains a serious logical flaw.
▪ Critics have, however, found serious flaws in the whole approach.
▪ Similarly, a model in which a market is identified and then the technology sought to fill it also has serious flaws.
■ NOUN
character
▪ But he knows about this tiny character flaw, and is working on it.
▪ And they just said that I was really defensive; that was a character flaw, so I needed more hospitalization.
▪ The ads trumpet the idea that anxiety and depression result from imbalances in brain biochemistry, not from character flaws.
design
▪ No one is saying there is a design flaw in the Boeing 757.
■ VERB
expose
▪ Some top cops say this terrifying news exposes major flaws in the current register system.
▪ It exposes flaws and loopholes; and, by analysis, contradictions are highlighted and the limitations of proposals are exposed.
▪ Globalisation, accelerated by the internet, is exposing serious flaws in the world's tax systems.
▪ The example also serves to expose the major flaw in Kleinig's account.
▪ The markets have exposed the fatal flaw of Margaret Thatcher's government.
▪ The 25 percent. discount is another concession that exposes flaws in the tax.
find
▪ When Athene came to inspect the work she could find no flaw there.
▪ To be sure, some geologists have found flaws in certain parts of the theory, but few reject it entirely.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a character flaw
▪ It was half price because of a slight flaw.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In this he was fatally handicapped by his own inconsistencies, paradoxes and deep personal flaws.
▪ One of the major flaws in the existing system is that the prosecutor has immunity from law suits claiming malicious prosecution.
▪ Regulatory agencies uncovered numerous flaws in operating and safety procedures.
▪ The Web browser is nice, but it also has its flaws.
▪ These transitions would not occur altogether smoothly - flaws would be created, like the planes and lines formed when water freezes.
▪ They were, in any case, fairly trivial flaws.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flaw

Flaw \Flaw\ (fl[add]), n. [OE. flai, flaw flake; cf. Sw. flaga flaw, crack, breach, flake, D. vlaag gust of wind, Norw. flage, flaag, and E. flag a flat stone.]

  1. A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase.

    This heart Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws.
    --Shak.

  2. A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute.

    Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?
    --South.

  3. A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel. [Obs.]

    And deluges of armies from the town Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw.
    --Dryden.

  4. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.

    Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw.
    --Milton.

    Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn.
    --Tennyson.

    Syn: Blemish; fault; imperfection; spot; speck.

Flaw

Flaw \Flaw\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flawed; p. pr. & vb. n. Flawing.]

  1. To crack; to make flaws in.

    The brazen caldrons with the frosts are flawed.
    --Dryden.

  2. To break; to violate; to make of no effect. [Obs.]

    France hath flawed the league.
    --Shak.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
flaw

early 14c., "a flake" (of snow), also in Middle English "a spark of fire; a splinter," from Old Norse flaga "stone slab, layer of stone," perhaps used here in a wider sense (see flag (n.2)). Old English had floh stanes, but the Middle English form suggests a Scandinavian origin. "The close resemblance in sense between flaw and flake is noteworthy" [OED]. Sense of "defect, fault" first recorded 1580s, first of character, later (c.1600) of material things; probably via notion of a "fragment" broken off.

flaw

"cause a flaw or defect in," early 15c. (implied in flawed); see flaw (n.). Related: Flawing.

Wiktionary
flaw

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context obsolete English) A flake, fragment, or shiver. 2 (context obsolete English) A thin cake, as of ice. 3 A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion. 4 A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially one that is hidden. 5 A defect or error in a contract or other document which may make the document invalid. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective. 2 (context intransitive English) To become imperfect or defective. Etymology 2

n. 1 A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration. 2 A storm of short duration. 3 A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel.

Related phrases:
WordNet
flaw

  1. n. an imperfection in a device or machine; "if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer" [syn: defect, fault]

  2. defect or weakness in a person's character; "he had his flaws, but he was great nonetheless"

  3. v. add a flaw or blemish to; make imperfect or defective [syn: blemish]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Flaw (band)

Flaw is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. The band was formed by guitarist Jason Daunt in 1996. After a string of rough independent recordings in the 1990s, the band signed to Republic/ Universal Records and released two major label albums, Through the Eyes in 2001 and Endangered Species in 2004. Breakups, line-up changes, and internal strife plagued the band for the rest of the decade, though as of 2015, the band reformed with three of their core members for touring and writing music. The band will release its fourth studio album, Divided We Fall, on August 19, 2016.

Flaw

Flaw may refer to:

Usage examples of "flaw".

But no one every looked that closely because Abram moved on before they could find his flaws.

The old charge of vanity, the character flaw that Adams so often chastised himself for, had been made again, and on the floor of Congress, just as he was to assume his most important role.

An overweening ambition was the flaw Adams so often attributed to others, that he warned his sons against, and that privately he recognized in himself.

Guilt over the fact that they do not embody the magnificent sadness of politicans and the brooding sympathy of anchorpersons, that their grief is a flawed posture, streaked with the banal, with thoughts of sex and football, cable bills and job security.

Guilt over the fact that they do not embody the magnificent sadness of politicians and the brooding sympathy of anchorpersons, that their grief is a flawed posture, streaked with the banal, with thoughts of sex and football, cable bills and job security.

Even in the first flare of youth, even at the time when he was the meteoric, dazzling figure flaunting over all the baldpates of the universe the standard of the musical future, it was apparent that there were serious flaws in his spirit.

Aziz walked down the hall with Bengazi, he started to see one fundamental flaw in his plan.

Some flaws were found-La Cucaracha was a very old lady-but fewer than Hilton expected.

Riberry trees wove about the edges of the round window, leaning in to offer clusters of yellow leaves, and minute markin grubs were sprinkled across the glasswork like the tiniest flaws in glass.

Pitts had won the Guggenheim grant he applied for to support his doctoral project, but Wiener soon learned that Pitts was plagued by two flaws Wiener himself never suffered as a prodigy or as an adult: an incorrigible habit of procrastination and a terror of being judged, which Pitts masked with bravado.

In each study, however, the investigators concluded that methodological flaws had led to the negative results.

They came out of the egg transparent, so we could inspect them for fit and flaws, and except for the barely visible tracery of microtubules that carried coolant and such around them, they looked like an extra layer of skin.

Double Pointers and Flaws, Pins of Uberwald and Genua, First Steps in Pins, Adventures in Acuphilia .

There is, however, a fatal flaw in your argument: we have no idea where the Polypheme home world might be, and we know they will do everything they can to conceal that knowledge from us.

According to many primatologists, it shares something in common with these earlier experiments: it is fatally flawed.