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defected

[ dih-fek-tid ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

having deserted a country, cause, etc., especially in order to adopt another:
In the movie White Nights, a defected Soviet dancer is returned to his motherland when the plane he’s on is forced to land in Russia.
defective ( def 1 ).

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of defect.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of defected¹

First recorded in 1585–95; defect + -ed ²( def ) for the adjective senses; defect + -ed ¹( def ) for the verb sense

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Dame Andrea, who defected to Reform UK last year, moved to Lincolnshire when she was seven and went on to study at Grimsby College and the University of Lincoln.

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Reform councillor Thomas Kerr, who defected from the Conservatives in January, said he welcomed "any serious attempt to reflect on the state of our national discourse".

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Greene, who defected to the Liberal Democrats on Friday, claimed he was not alone in feeling the Conservatives' shift to tackle the threat posed by Reform had alienated certain members.

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The party is still neck-and-neck with Labour in the polls, and on Monday, it showed off 29 councillors who had recently defected to Reform UK.

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A government commission determined that President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran and self-described Marxist who had defected to the Soviet Union and later returned to the US.

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Related Words

defect defectible

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