Flaw

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Flaw, 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.].

•  A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase.  [1913 Webster]

  "This heart
  Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws."  [1913 Webster]
•  A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute.  [1913 Webster]

  "Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?"  [1913 Webster]
•  A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel.  [1913 Webster]

  "And deluges of armies from the town
  Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw."  [1913 Webster]
•  A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.  [1913 Webster]

  "Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw."  [1913 Webster]

  "Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn."

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

Flaw, v. t. 

•  To crack; to make flaws in.  [1913 Webster]

  "The brazen caldrons with the frosts are flawed."  [1913 Webster]
•  To break; to violate; to make of no effect.  [1913 Webster]

  "France hath flawed the league."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Flaw, n. & v.
--n.
1 an imperfection; a blemish (has a character without a flaw).
2 a crack or similar fault (the cup has a flaw).
3 Law an invalidating defect in a legal matter.
--v.tr. & intr. crack; damage; spoil.

Derivative

flawless adj. flawlessly adv. flawlessness n.

Flaw, n. a squall of wind; a short storm.

Etymology

prob. f. MDu. vlaghe, MLG vlage, perh. = stroke

THESAURUS

Flaw

aberrancy, aberration, abysm, abyss, arroyo, bad habit, besetting sin, birthmark, black mark, blackhead, blast, bleb, blemish, blister, blot, blow, box canyon, breach, break, bug, bulla, canyon, catch, cavity, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink, chip, cicatrix, cicatrize, cleavage, cleft, cleuch, clough, col, comedo, coulee, couloir, crack, cranny, crater, craze, crevasse, crevice, cut, cwm, damage, deface, defacement, defect, defection, defectiveness, deficiency, defile, deform, deformation, deformity, dell, delusion, deviancy, dike, discredit, disfiguration, disfigure, disfigurement, distort, distortion, ditch, donga, draw, drawback, errancy, erroneousness, error, excavation, failing, failure, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, fault, faultiness, faute, fissure, flawedness, flume, flurry, foible, fracture, frailty, freckle, furrow, gap, gape, gash, gorge, groove, gulch, gulf, gully, gust, hamartia, harm, hemangioma, heresy, heterodoxy, hickey, hole, hurt, illusion, imperfection, inadequacy, incision, infirmity, joint, keloid, kink, kloof, leak, lentigo, little problem, loophole, mar, mark, milium, misapplication, misconstruction, misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation, misjudgment, mistake, moat, mole, moral flaw, needle scar, nevus, notch, nullah, opening, pass, passage, peccancy, perforation, perversion, pimple, pit, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain, problem, puncture, pustule, ravine, rent, rift, rime, rip, ruin, rupture, scab, scar, scarify, scissure, scratch, scud, seam, sebaceous cyst, self-contradiction, shortcoming, sin, sinfulness, slit, slot, snag, something missing, split, spoil, stain, stigmatize, strawberry mark, sty, taint, tear, track, trench, twist, unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness, valley, verruca, vesicle, vice, void, vulnerable place, wadi, wale, warp, wart, weak link, weak point, weak side, weaken, weakness, weal, welt, wen, whitehead, wind gust, wrong, wrongness

ROGET THESAURUS

Flaw

Imperfection

N imperfection, imperfectness, deficiency, inadequacy, peccancy, immaturity, fault, defect, weak point, screw loose, flaw, gap, twist, taint, attainder, bar sinister, hole in one's coat, blemish, weakness, half blood, shortcoming, drawback, seamy side, mediocrity, no great shakes, no great catch, not much to boast of, one-horse shay, imperfect, not perfect, deficient, defective, faulty, unsound, tainted, out of order, out of tune, cracked, leaky, sprung, warped, lame, injured, peccant, frail, inadequate, crude, incomplete, found wanting, below par, short-handed, below its full strength, under its full strength, below its full complement, indifferent, middling, ordinary, mediocre, average, so-so, coucicouci, milk and water, tolerable, fair, passable, pretty well, pretty good, rather good, moderately good, good, good enough, well enough, adequate, decent, not bad, not amiss, inobjectionable, unobjectionable, admissible, bearable, only better than nothing, secondary, inferior, second-rate, second-best, one-horse, almost, to a limited extent, rather, pretty, moderately, passing, only, considering, all things considered, enough, surgit amari aliquid.

Discontinuity

N discontinuity, disjunction, anacoluthon, interruption, break, fracture, flaw, fault, crack, cut, gap, solution of continuity, caesura, broken thread, parenthesis, episode, rhapsody, patchwork, intermission, alternation, dropping fire, discontinuous, unsuccessive, broken, interrupted, dicousu, disconnected, unconnected, discrete, disjunctive, fitful, spasmodic, desultory, intermitting, occasional, intermittent, alternate, recurrent, at intervals, by snatches, by jerks, by skips, by catches, by fits and starts, skippingly, per saltum, longo intervallo, like 'angel visits few and far between'.

Blemish

N blemish, disfigurement, deformity, adactylism, flaw, defect, injury, spots on the sun, eyesore, stain, blot, spot, spottiness, speck, speckle, blur, tarnish, smudge, dirt, freckle, mole, macula, patch, blotch, birthmark, blobber lip, blubber lip, blain, maculation, scar, wem, pustule, whelk, excrescence, pimple, pitted, freckled, discolored, imperfect, blobber-lipped, bloodshot, injured.

Interval

N interval, interspace, separation, break, gap, opening, hole, chasm, hiatus, caesura, interruption, interregnum, interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha, gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm, gulf, inlet, frith, strait, gully, pass, furrow, abra, barranca, barranco, clove, gulch, notch, yawning gulf, hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus, parenthesis, void, incompleteness, period, interim (time), with an interval, far between, breachy, rimose, rimulose, at intervals, longo intervallo.

Guilt

N guilt, guiltiness, culpability, criminality, criminousness, deviation from rectitude, sinfulness, misconduct, misbehavior, misdoing, misdeed, malpractice, fault, sin, error, transgression, dereliction, delinquency, indiscretion, lapse, slip, trip, faux pas, peccadillo, flaw, blot, omission, failing, failure, break, bad break!, capital crime, delictum, offense, trespass, misdemeanor, misfeasance, misprision, malefaction, malfeasance, malversation, crime, felony, enormity, atrocity, outrage, deadly sin, mortal sin, deed without a name, corpus delicti, guilty, to blame, culpable, peccable, in fault, at fault, censurable, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, illaudable, weighed in the balance and found wanting, exceptionable, in flagrante delicto, red-handed, in the very act, with one's hand in the cookie jar, cui prodest scelus in fecit, culpam paena premit comes, O would the deed were good!, responsibility prevents crimes se judice nemo noce, so many laws argues so many sins.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.