desertverb
to leave a company, stop buying from a business, etc., especially in order to start working for or buying from one of their competitors:
The company is paying out millions in incentive bonuses to stop its best people from defecting.
Internet providers struggled to prevent angry customers defecting.
defect fromShe defected from the software company to take up a post at their main rival.
defect toA lot of traditional department stores' customers are defecting to discount stores.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Running away and escaping
abscond
abscond from somewhere
abscond with someone/something
back away
back off
bail out
elopement
elude
escape from someone/something
escape route
escapology
leg
loose
run away
runaway
scarce
scarper
scram
throw
underground

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Organizations - joining & leaving

defect | American Dictionary

defect
noun[ C ]
us/ˈdi·fekt, dɪˈfekt/

defectnoun[C] (SOMETHING WRONG)

something that is lacking or that is not exactly right in someone or something:
The cars have a defect in the electrical system that may cause them to stall.

defective

adjectiveus/dɪˈfek·tɪv/
I replaced the defective light switch.
defect
verb[ I ]
us/dɪˈfekt/

defectverb[I] (LEAVE)

to leave a country or a group you belong to, esp. in order to join an opposing one:
Some of the mayor’s long-time supporters have defected to other candidates.

defection

noun[ C/U ]us/dɪˈfek·ʃən/
[ C ]There have been defections to the US by several Cuban baseball players.

defect | Business English

defect
noun[ C ]
uk /ˈdiːfekt/us
COMMERCE, PRODUCTION
a fault that spoils something or causes it not to work correctly:
product defects
The report cited structural defects as the reason for the demolition of the building.
correct/remedy/rectify a defect
a major/serious/minor defect
a design/manufacturing defect
defect
verb[ I ]
uk /dɪˈfekt/us
WORKPLACE
to leave one company or organization and form or join another:
defect from/to sthMany of our sales team have defected to the competition.
COMMERCE, MARKETING
to stop buying a particular product or service and buy a different one instead:
defect from/to sthMillions of customers defected to rival telecommunications companies.
POLITICS
to leave your country or group and join another because you disagree with the ideas of those in control:
He's a pilot who defected to the United States.

defection

noun[ C or U ]
Since the introduction of the new tariff, there have been fewer customer defections.

Examples of defect

defect
Most disturbing is the finding that once players learn that their opponent has either cooperated or defected, almost all defect.
But the argument from selective refutation can be misleading when it causes us to fail to notice that the surviving hypothesis has its own defects.
They are already used frequently in structural analysis, for example to detect micro- or nanoscale defects.
They are thus subject to defects in this treatment.
It is unlikely that, in this case, the aneurysmal transformation had been caused by tuberculosis, considering its frequent association with peri-membranous ventricular septal defects.
First trimester insults affecting neurogenesis are unlikely, as gross structural defects (such as schizencephaly and polymicrogyria) would be expected.
For subjects of both rank types, the higher the expectation of defection, the higher the probability of defecting.
Failing to do better than one did is a defect only if doing better than one did is possible for one to do.
Failing to do better than one did is a defect only if doing the best one can is possible for one to do.
The observation of these joint defect parameters is difficult if the values of the passive revolute joints are unknown.
All the defects were either contiguous to the tricuspid annulus (perimembranous) or close to it (separated by the posterior limb of the septomarginal trabeculation).
The long-term outlook for patients who have had surgical repair of atrial septal defects is generally extremely good, with minimal, if any, risk of endocarditis.
Earlier methods relied on sutures to repair the hernia under tension, whereas newer methods involved placing a synthetic mesh over the defect without tension.
While all of them helped make this article a better one, they cannot be held responsible for any defects that remain.
Of these, 67 had a common atrioventricular orifice ("complete" defect) while the remaining 73 had separate orifices for the right and left junctions ("partial" defects).
See all examples of defect
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations withdefect

defect

These are words often used in combination with defect.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

cardiac defect
In these cases, depending on the cardiac defect, either the pulmonary or systemic circulation is dependent on the patency of the arterial duct.
congenital defect
We found a higher incidence of rheumatic involvement of the aortic and pulmonary valves when they were also affected by a congenitaldefect.
construction defect
Construction defect reporting using mobile and digital workbench technologies.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with defect