Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lacking; deficient; needy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Liable to defect; imperfect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective able to be defected, able to be turned against

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

defect +‎ -ible

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Examples

  • For God, the supremely good, is not the author of evils, but the rational and defectible will is the cause of sin; wherefore let no one impute his midsdeeds and crimes to God, but to himself, according to Jer.

    The Confutatio Pontificia Johann Michael Reu 1906

  • But although every individual man may fail, yet the Church is still infallible; although every man, being defectible, may fall away, yet "the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church."

    The Grounds of Faith: Four Lectures. 1808-1892 1843

  • So that, according to this discourse, the basis of tradition is not man's nature considered as moral, and capable of intellectual reflection; for in this consideration it is dark and defectible: but man's nature considered only as capable of "direct sensitive knowledge," as acting naturally and necessarily.

    The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 10. 1630-1694 1820

  • If we didn't already know that she had the benefit of a divine teaching office at her disposal, we might almost be led to suspect that the one true church was just another fallible, defectible, and wholly uninspired organization.

    Triablogue 2008

  • And if man, according to his moral part, be (as he says) defectible, how can the indefectibility of tradition be founded in those arguments which work upon man only according to his moral part? "

    The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 10. 1630-1694 1820

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