Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to defect
Participle: defected
Gerund: defecting
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | defect |
| you | defect |
| he;she;it | defects |
| we | defect |
| you | defect |
| they | defect |
Perfect
| I | have defected |
| you | have defected |
| he;she;it | has defected |
| we | have defected |
| you | have defected |
| they | have defected |
Past
| I | defected |
| you | defected |
| he;she;it | defected |
| we | defected |
| you | defected |
| they | defected |
Pluperfect
| I | had defected |
| you | had defected |
| he;she;it | had defected |
| we | had defected |
| you | had defected |
| they | had defected |
Future
| I | will defect |
| you | will defect |
| he;she;it | will defect |
| we | will defect |
| you | will defect |
| they | will defect |
Future Perfect
| I | will have defected |
| you | will have defected |
| he;she;it | will have defected |
| we | will have defected |
| you | will have defected |
| they | will have defected |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | defect |
| you | defect |
| he;she;it | defect |
| we | defect |
| you | defect |
| they | defect |
Perfect
| I | have defected |
| you | have defected |
| he;she;it | have defected |
| we | have defected |
| you | have defected |
| they | have defected |
Imperfect
| I | defected |
| you | defected |
| he;she;it | defected |
| we | defected |
| you | defected |
| they | defected |
Pluperfect
| I | had defected |
| you | had defected |
| he;she;it | had defected |
| we | had defected |
| you | had defected |
| they | had defected |
Conditional
Present
| I | would defect |
| you | would defect |
| he;she;it | would defect |
| we | would defect |
| you | would defect |
| they | would defect |
Perfect
| I | would have defected |
| you | would have defected |
| he;she;it | would have defected |
| we | would have defected |
| you | would have defected |
| they | would have defected |
Imperative
| you | defect |
| we | Let's defect |
| you | defect |
Verbs conjugated like 'defect'
abandon,
abduct,
abear,
aberr,
abject,
abord,
abort,
abound,
abraid,
abray,
abrook,
abscind,
abscond,
absist,
absorb,
abstain,
abstract,
accend,
accent,
accept, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'defect'
defeat,
deflect,
deject,
detect,
refect,
affect,
decoct,
dedent,
deduct,
deech,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
- desert
- abandon, abscond, apostatize, betray, forsake, rat, renounce, rebel
Antonyms
- desert
- stay, remain, abide, continue
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. c.1420, from L. defectus "failure, revolt," from pp. of deficere "to fail, desert" (see deficient). Defection "falling away from a leader, party, or cause" is first recorded 1546, originally of faith. Defective was a euphemism for "mentally ill" from 1898 to c.1935.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *de
4. Proto-Indo-European *-h₁
5. Proto-Indo-European *déh₁
6. Proto-Italic *dē
7. Latin dē
8. Latin de-
9. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-
10. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-
11. Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
12. Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti
13. Proto-Italic *θakjō
14. Proto-Italic *fakjō
15. Latin facio
16. Latin dēficiō
17. Proto-Indo-European *-tus
18. Proto-Italic *-tus
19. Latin -tus
20. Latin dēfectusbor.
21. English defect
22. Borrowed from Latin defectus (“a failure, lack”), from deficere (“to fail, lack, literally 'undo'”), from past participle defectus, from de- (“of, from”) + facere (“to do”).
Sample Sentences
-
Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect. In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.” [2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 May 2013:]
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Passing through Thailand, she submitted a handwritten statement agreeing to defect, a requirement for North Korean refugees to be allowed to enter the South. [2015 August 15, Choe Sang-Hun, “A North Korean Defector’s Regret”, in The New York Times, retrieved 20 Sep 2015:]