different between demerit vs drawback

English

Etymology

From Old French desmerite (compare French démérite).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??m?r?t/
• Rhymes: -?r?t

Noun

demerit (countable and uncountable, plural demerits)

2. A quality of being inadequate; a fault; a disadvantage
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     They see no merit or demerit in any man or any action.
3. A mark given for bad conduct to a person attending an educational institution or serving in the army.
   • 2002, George W. Bush, Commencement Address at West Point:

     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.)

4. That which one merits or deserves, either of good or ill; desert.
   • c. 1550s, Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister

     Leave here thy body, death has her demerit

   • 1603, Philemon Holland (translator), The Philosophie, commonly called, the Morals (originally by Plutarch)

     By many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents, [they] acquired this reputation.

Synonyms

• discredit

Antonyms

• merit

Derived terms

• demerit point

Translations

Verb

demerit (third-person singular simple present demerits, present participle demeriting, simple past and past participle demerited)

1. (transitive, archaic) To deserve.
   • 1840, Alexander Campbell, Dolphus Skinner, A discussion of the doctrines of the endless misery and universal salvation (page 351)

     You hold that every sin is an infinite evil, demeriting endless punishment.

2. (transitive, archaic) To depreciate or cry down.
   • 1576, John Woolton, The Christian Manuell

     Faith by her own dignity and worthiness doth not demerit justice and righteousness; but receiveth and embraceth the same offered unto us in the gospel […]

Anagrams

• detemir, dimeter, merited, mitered, red time, retimed

English

Etymology

draw +? back

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d????bæk/

Noun

drawback (plural drawbacks)

1. A disadvantage; something that detracts or takes away.

   Poor fuel economy is a common drawback among larger vehicles.

   Synonyms: encumbrance, hindrance, nuisance, malefit

   Antonyms: benefit, advantage, boon

2. A partial refund of an import fee, as when goods are re-exported from the country that collected the fee.
3. The inhalation of a lungful of smoke from a cigarette.

Translations

Anagrams

• backward