flaw
pronunciation
How to pronounce flaw in British English:
UK [flɔː]
How to pronounce flaw in American English:
US [flɔː]
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- Noun:
- an imperfection in a device or machine
- defect or weakness in a person's character
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- Verb:
- add a flaw or blemish to; make imperfect or defective
Word Origin
- flaw
- flaw: see flake
- flaw (n.)
- 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 (v.)
- "cause a flaw or defect in," early 15c. (implied in flawed); see flaw (n.). Related: Flawing.
Example
- 1. Mr barnier 's proposal has one fundamental flaw .
- 2. Economists will recognise the flaw in this logic .
- 3. There 's not much we can learn from yahoo 's first fatal flaw .
- 4. The flaw in the system is that banks can estimate their own libor rates .
- 5. Meanwhile , the other structural flaw remains .