Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Defect

Defect , noun

[Latin defectus, from deficere, defectum, to desert, fail, be wanting; de- + facere to make, do. See Fact, Feat, and compare Deficit.]

1.
Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity.
Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. — Davies
2.
Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment.
Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, Make use of every friend -- and every foe. — Pope
Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects. — Macaulay

Defect , intransitive verb

To fail; to become deficient. [Obsolete]
Defected honor. — Warner
2.
to abandon one country or faction, and join another.

Defect , transitive verb

To injure; to damage. [Rare]
None can my life defect. — Troubles of Q. Elizabeth (1639)