Demerit

Definitions

1. A quality of being inadequate; a disadvantage, a fault.
   countable, uncountable
2. A mark given for bad conduct to a person attending an educational institution or serving in the army.
   countable, uncountable
3. That which one merits or deserves, either of good or ill; desert.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“[W]hatever they acquire⟳ by their Induſtry or Ingenuity […] ſhould be as much their Property, as any diviſions of Land⟳ or of Stock⟳ that are made to the Sons; and the Poſſeſſion as ſecure, unleſs forfeited by any demerit or offence againſt the cuſtoms of the Family, which grow⟳ with time to be the Orders of this little State.”

“They see⟳ no merit or demerit in any man or any action.”

“A few of you have⟳ followed in the path of the perfect West Point⟳ graduate, Robert E. Lee, who never received a single demerit in four years. Some of you followed in the path of the imperfect graduate, Ulysses S. Grant, who had his fair share⟳ of demerits, and said the happiest day of his life was "the day I left West Point⟳." (Laughter.)”

“I fall⟳ to riſe, mount⟳ to thy maker, ſpirit, /. Leaue here thy body, death ha's her demerit.”

“But when firſt Cleobulus the tyrant of the Lindians, and then Periander the tyrant likewiſe of Corinth (who had neither of them any one jot of vertue or wiſdome) by the greatneſſe of their power, by the number⟳ of their friends, and by many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents, acquired forcibly this reputation, in deſpite of all uſurped the name⟳ of Sages; and to this purpoſe cauſed to be ſpred ſowen and divulged throughout all Greece certaine odde ſentences and notable ſayings, as well as thoſe of others, wherewith the former Sages, above named were diſcontented.”

CEFR level