Flaw (?), n. [OE. flai, flaw flake; cf. Sw. flaga flaw, crack, breach, flake, D. vlaag gust of wind, Norw. flage, flaag, and E. flag a flat stone.]
1.
A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase.
This heart
Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws.
Shak.
2.
A defect; a fault; as, a flaw in reputation; a flaw in a will, in a deed, or in a statute.
Has not this also its flaws and its dark side?
South.
3.
A sudden burst of noise and disorder; a tumult; uproar; a quarrel.
[Obs.]
And deluges of armies from the town
Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw.
Dryden.
4.
A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration.
Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw.
Milton.
Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn.
Tennyson.
Syn. -- Blemish; fault; imperfection; spot; speck.
© Webster 1913.
Flaw, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flawed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Flawing.]
1.
To crack; to make flaws in.
The brazen caldrons with the frosts are flawed.
Dryden.
2.
To break; to violate; to make of no effect.
[Obs.]
France hath flawed the league.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.