Flaw sb.¹

Forms: 4 flay, 4–7 flawe, (6 flaa), 4– flaw. [Perh. a. ON. flaga wk. fem., recorded in sense ‘slab of stone’ (Sw. flaga flake, also flaw in a casting, etc.; Da. flage may correspond either to this word or to FLAKE sb.², q.v.). The ON. word may have been used in wider senses derived from the various applications of the Teut. root *flah-, flag- parallel and synonymous with *flak- whence FLAKE sb.²; the close resemblance in sense between flaw and flake is noteworthy. It is possible that an OE. *flaȝe, *flaȝu existed.]

  I.  A detached piece of something.

  † 1.  A flake (of snow); a flake or spark (of fire). Obs. (Cf. FLAKE sb.² 1, 2.)

c. 1325.  Gloss W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 160. La bouche me entra la aunf de neyf [gloss a flay of snow].

a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 2556. Tille þe flawes of fyre flawmes one theire helmes.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1756. Riȝt as a flaw of fell snawe · ware fallyn of a ryft.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VI. i. 78.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 133/1. A flawe of fire.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. ii. 111.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 34.

  2.  A fragment; spec. Sc. ‘the point of a horsenail broken off by the smith after it has passed through the hoof’ (Jam.). Hence in Not worth a flaw. (Cf. FLAKE sb.² 3.) Obs. exc. Sc.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 288.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts 415. It will ranckle worse, by reason of the flaw of yron remaining in the flesh.

1810.  J. Sim, Deil & M’Ommie, in R. Ford, Harp of Perthshire (1893), 96.

  3.  (Cf. FLAKE sb.² 4, 5, and FLAG sb.² 1, 2.) a. A turf, or collect. turf. A flaw of peats: the quantity got in a season.

1811.  A. Scott, Poems, 161.

1836.  Richardson, Sods flayed or stripped from the top of the surface of the earth are in the North called ‘flaws.’

  † b.  A slab or layer of stone. Obs.

1570–6.  Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 151. [An alleged Saxon flostane] signifieth a rocke, coast, or flaw of stone.

  II.  A breach, broken or faulty place.

  4.  A crack, breach, fissure, rent, rift.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 79. Wooll new shorne, being laid casually vpon a Vessell of Veriuyce, after some time, had drunke vp a great part of the Veriuyce, though the Vessell were whole without any Flaw, and had not the Bung-hole open.

1685.  Dryden, Thren. August, i. 31.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Flaw, a water-flaw and a crack in Chrystals.

1709.  Swift, Adv. Relig. As he that would keep his house in repair must attend every little breach or flaw, and supply it immediately, else time alone will bring all to ruin,—how much more the common accidents of storms and rain?

1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, II. 105.

1764.  Burn, Poor Laws, 236. Where a flaw is observed, a patch is provided for it. Upon that, another. And so on, till the original coat is lost amidst a variety of patch-work.

1842.  Longf., Sp. Stud., III. vi. Vict. The merest flaw that dents the horizon’s edge.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. xxiv. 355. On the closest examination no flaw is exhibited by the ice.

  fig.  1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. xii. 34.

1615.  Wither, The Shepherds Hunting, iii. Juvenilia (1633), 412.

1644.  Milton, Divorce, To Parl. Let him bethink him withall how he will soder up the shifting flaws of his ungirt permissions, his venial and unvenial dispences.

a. 1862.  Buckle, Civiliz. (1869), III. v. 480. The great Architect of the universe, the Creator and Designer of all existing things, is likened to some clumsy mechanic, who knows his trade so ill, that he has to be called in to alter the working of his own machine, to supply its deficiencies, to fill up its flaws, and to rectify its errors.

  † b.  ‘A disease in which the skin recedes from the nail’ (Cent. Dict.). Obs.

  In the quots. white flaw seems to be a perversion of QUICKFLAW; see also WHITLOW.

1579.  Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 52. Rapes are good for white flawes, and such like diseases of the nailes.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 669. A white flawe, rediuia.

  5.  A defect, imperfection, fault, blemish.

  a.  in material things.

1604.  Dekker, Honest Wh., x. G iij a. I warrant they are sound Pistols, and without flawes.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 391. Thou dost but shew, declare, demonstrate, that thou hast a Crack, Flaw, soft Place in thy Skull.

1684.  R. H., School Recreat., 149. The best sound Cork without Flaws or Holes bored through with a hot Iron, and a Quill of a fit Proportion put into it.

1713.  Steele, Guardian No. 16, 30 March, ¶ 5. The smallest blemish in it, like a flaw in a jewel, takes off the whole value of it.

1801.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tears & Smiles, Wks. 1812, V. 14.

1869.  J. J. Raven, Ch. Bells Camb. (1881), 2. The bell was never good for anything, from the number of flaws in the casting.

1882.  Ouida, Maremma, I. 67. This child that was Saturnino’s throve, and grew without ailment, without accident, without a flaw anywhere, in feature, or limb, or body.

  b.  in immaterial things, and fig.

1586.  A. Day, The English Secretary (1625), 75. Whilest there is yet but one craze or slender flaw in the touchstone of thy reputation, peece it vp, and new flourish againe by the greater excellency, the square of thy workmanship.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 414.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Riches (Arb.), 237. Vsury is the certainest Meanes of Gaine, though one of the worst…. But yet Certaine though it be, it hath Flawes.

1667.  Poole, Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 46. It is sufficiently evident, that all our material Doctrines have been constantly and successively owned by a considerable number of persons in several Ages, but only that you may see there is a flaw in the very foundation of your Argument.

1705.  Berkeley, Commonpl. Bk., Wks. 1871, IV. 455. They discover flaws and imperfections in their faculties w^ch other men never spy out.

1772.  Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), II. 291. None of the apostles, or primitive Christians, ever took this method to avoid torture, even when they could have no hope of life; and we, cannot but feel that we should have thought meanly of them if they had done so, thinking such a degree of impatience and cowardice, as that conduct would have argued, a considerable flaw in their characters.

1840.  Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvi. 146. No flaw was ever detected in his reckonings.

1855.  C. Brontë, Villette, i. 2. He inherited the lines of his mother’s features, however; also her good teeth, her stature (or the promise of her stature, for he was not yet full-grown), and, what was better, her health without flaw, and her spirits of that tone and equality which are better than a fortune to the possessor.

  c.  esp. In a legal document or procedure, a pedigree, title, etc.: An invalidating defect or fault.

1616.  R. C., Times’ Whistle, v. 2049.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 448. If a mans Abilities be allow’d, some flaw or other must be found in his Relations and Pedigree.

a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 194. A Prince who knew there was a flaw in his title would always govern well, and consider himself as at the mercy of the right heir if he was not in all things in the interests and hearts of his people, which was often neglected by Princes that relied on an undoubted title.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, ii. There seemed to be no flaw in the title of Polly Toodle.

1883.  Sir T. Martin, Ld. Lyndhurst, iv. 116. The charge was a capital one, the evidence clear, and a flaw in the indictment was the only chance of escape.

  d.  A failure in duty; a shortcoming in conduct, a fault.

1742.  Young, Nt. Th., v. 142.

1781.  Cowper, Truth, 549.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxvi. We will pay largely for soul masses for those who have fallen by Henry’s sword; and that will not only cure spiritual flaws, but make us friends with the Church again.

  6.  Sc. A ‘fib,’ falsehood.

1724.  Ramsay, Gent. Sheph., II. iii.

1788.  E. Picken, Auld Harry’s Elegy, 16, Poems, 118.

  7.  Comb., as flaw-seeking adj.

1844.  Lowell, Love, 24.