a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition; "he was here for a little while"; "I need to rest for a piece"; "a spell of good weather"; "a patch of bad weather"
some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity; "the telephone is an annoying interruption"; "there was a break in the action when a player was hurt"
the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required; "new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit"
an excess of liabilities over assets (usually over a certain period); "last year there was a serious budgetary deficit"
(sports) the score by which a team or individual is losing
a deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning; "the people concerned have a deficit in verbal memory"; "they have serious linguistic deficits"
a device for showing the operating condition of some system
a signal for attracting attention
(chemistry) a substance that changes color to indicate the presence of some ion or substance; can be used to indicate the completion of a chemical reaction or (in medicine) to test for a particular reaction
a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude; "without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy the humor"; "don't argue about shades of meaning"
an event that occurs at a critical time; "at such junctures he always had an impulse to leave"; "it was needed only on special occasions"
a crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made; "at that juncture he had no idea what to do"; "he must be made to realize that the company stands at a critical point"
the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable; "there is a serious lack of insight into the problem"; "water is the critical deficiency in desert regions"; "for want of a nail the shoe was lost"