From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdeficientde‧fi‧cient /dɪˈfɪʃənt/ adjective formal 1 ENOUGH#not containing or having enough of something Women who are dieting can become iron deficient.deficient in patients who were deficient in vitamin C2 GOODnot good enough Our prisons are our most deficient social service.
Examples from the Corpus
deficient• It will shock her, this assumed equivalence with a man so strikingly deficient.• The capacity of the ram inboard to accommodate her crew was fearfully deficient...• There is, even yet, a hangover of fear and superstition where the disables or mentally deficient are concerned.• As many as 2 million students leave school with deficient basic skills.• How would they react to a deficient health care system?• Gospel preaching will be seriously deficient if this dimension is omitted.• It was a delightful, careless room, untidy and rather deficient in comfortable chairs.• Vitamin E is available from so many food sources that no normal diet could possibly be deficient in it.• The investment appraisal published by the Southern board was deficient in many respects.• Your diet is deficient in vitamins.deficient in• a diet deficient in calciumOrigin deficient (1500-1600) Latin deficiens, present participle of deficere; → DEFECT1 