ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Defunct

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /dɪˈfʌŋkt/ · Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Defunct is an adjective meaning No longer in use or active, nor expected to be again.

Meaning

No longer in use or active, nor expected to be again.

More Meanings

  1. (linguistics) (of a language) No longer spoken.
  2. (now rare) Deceased, dead.
  3. To make defunct.
  4. The dead person (referred to).
  5. (computing) Specifically, of a process: having terminated but not having been reaped (by its parent or an inheritor), and thus still occupying a process slot. See also zombie, zombie process.

Example Sentences

The organs, though defunct and dead before, / Break up their drowsy grave and newly move
[T]he engineer must solve the mysteries of boiler accidents by studying defunct structures of many different types.
A small tablet is fixt near the Altar, upon wᶜʰ the friends of yᵉ defunct lay their offerings in mony according to their own ability and the quality of the person deceased.
Morgante at a venture shot an arrow, / Which pierced a pig precisely in the ear, / And passed unto the other side quite through; / So that the boar, defunct, lay tripped up near.

Word Forms

Synonyms for defunct

Depending on context, synonyms include antiquated, disused, outdated, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include dead, inoperative, deceased, extinct, obsolete, departed.

Related Dictionary Tools

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.