as in to fail
to fail to function or work properly
A software problem is causing the system to malfunction.
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Recent Examples of malfunction
Posts claiming to be from the FBI communicated false claims about threats at polling places and malfunctioning voting machines.
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Barbara McQuade, TIME, 6 Nov. 2024
Bingo plays a robot butler whose legs are malfunctioning; Bandit keeps struggling with her settings and trying to read the manual to fix her, but her legs keep popping back into a bent position rather than staying straight.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2024
According to the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, the Jennie-O slaughter plant near the farm Doolittle investigated was cited nine times in 2018 by the US Department of Agriculture for turkeys who’d been mutilated by malfunctioning equipment.
—Kenny Torrella, Vox, 26 Nov. 2024
But that’s like patching up a faulty app without checking if the OS is malfunctioning.
—Aj Thomas, Forbes, 24 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for malfunction 
Barbara McQuade, TIME, 6 Nov. 2024
Bingo plays a robot butler whose legs are malfunctioning; Bandit keeps struggling with her settings and trying to read the manual to fix her, but her legs keep popping back into a bent position rather than staying straight.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2024
According to the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, the Jennie-O slaughter plant near the farm Doolittle investigated was cited nine times in 2018 by the US Department of Agriculture for turkeys who’d been mutilated by malfunctioning equipment.
—Kenny Torrella, Vox, 26 Nov. 2024
But that’s like patching up a faulty app without checking if the OS is malfunctioning.
—Aj Thomas, Forbes, 24 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for malfunction
Thesaurus Entries Near malfunction
Cite this Entry
“Malfunction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malfunction. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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