1. the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required (Freq. 4) - new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit • Syn: deficit, shortfall • Hypernyms: insufficiency, inadequacy, deficiency • Hyponyms: oxygen deficit 2. an acute insufficiency (Freq. 2) • Syn: dearth, famine • Hypernyms: lack, deficiency, want