flaw

Meanings

Noun

• A flake, fragment, or shiver.
• A thin cake, as of ice.
• A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion.
• A defect, fault, or imperfection, especially one that is hidden.
• A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration; windflaw.
• A storm of short duration.
• A sudden burst of noise and disorder

Verb

• To add a flaw to, to make imperfect or defective.
• To become imperfect or defective; to crack or break.

Origin

• From Middle English flawe, flay, probably from Old Norse flaga ("a flag or slab of stone, flake"), from Proto-Germanic *flagō ("a layer of soil"), from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- ("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 frament, piece").
• Probably Middle Dutch vlāghe or Middle Low German vlāge. Or, of North Germanic origin, from Swedish flaga ("gust of wind"), from Old Norse flaga; all from Proto-Germanic *flagōn-. See modern Dutch vlaag ("gust of wind").