flaw

From Middle English flawe, flay (“a flake of fire or snow, spark, splinter”), probably from Old Norse flaga (“a flag or slab of stone, flake”), from Proto-Germanic *flagō (“a layer of soil”), from Proto-Indo-European *plok- (“broad, flat”).

Cognate with Icelandic flaga (“flake”), Swedish flaga (“flake, scale”), Danish flage (“flake”), Middle Low German vlage (“a layer of soil”), Old English flōh (“a fragment, piece”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /flɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /flɔ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /flɑ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː
• Homophone: floor (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)

flaw (plural flaws)

1. (obsolete) A flake, fragment, or shiver.
2. (obsolete) A thin cake, as of ice.
3. A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion.

   There is a flaw in that knife.

   That vase has a flaw.

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     This heart / Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws.

4. A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially one that is hidden.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?

   1. (in particular) An inclusion, stain, or other defect of a diamond or other gemstone.
   2. (law) A defect or error in a contract or other document which may make the document invalid or ineffective.

      a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute

• See also Thesaurus:defect

• design flaw
• flawful
• flawless
• flawsome
• Persian flaw
• tragic flaw

flaw (third-person singular simple present flaws, present participle flawing, simple past and past participle flawed)

1. (transitive) To add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective.
2. (intransitive) To become imperfect or defective; to crack or break.

From Middle English *flaugh, from Middle Dutch vlāghe or Middle Low German vlāge, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *flagā.^[1] Or, possibly of North Germanic origin, from Swedish flaga (“gust of wind”), from Old Norse flaga;^[2] all from Proto-Germanic *flagǭ (“blow, strike”). See modern Dutch vlaag (“gust of wind”).

• flawe (obsolete)

• IPA^(key): /ˈflɔː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː

flaw (plural flaws)

1. A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration; windflaw.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     And snow and haile and stormie gust and flaw

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 41:

     Yniol with that hard message went; it fell, / Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn: […]

2. A storm of short duration.
3. A sudden burst of noise and disorder

   Synonyms: tumult, uproar, quarrel

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

     And deluges of armies from the town / Come pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw.

“flaw”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• AFLW, WLAF, WAFL, AFWL

flaw

1. To faint.