deficient

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   inadequate in amount or degree

   a deficient education

2. 2
   adj

   Lacking something essential; often construed with in.

   They were deficient in social skills.

3. 3
   adj

   Insufficient or inadequate in amount.

   Apothecia lecanoroid; multilocular; each cell containing a single theke; paraphyses deficient.

4. 4
   noun

   A person who is deficient.

   This was justified by the rationale that mental deficients, by definition, are not able to succeed in society.

5. 5
   adj

   falling short of some prescribed norm

6. 6
   adj

   of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement

7. 7
   adj

   Of a number n, Having the sum of divisors σ(n)<2n, or, equivalently, the sum of proper divisors (or aliquot sum) s(n)<n.

Etymology

From Latin deficiens, present participle of deficere (“to lack, fail, be wanting”); see defect.