defunct
/dɪˈfʌŋkt/ · def·unct
noun
- The dead person (referred to). The defunct king's legacy lived on in the hearts of his people.
- A person or thing that is no longer in existence or operation. The defunct factory was a reminder of the town's industrial past.
verb
- To make defunct. The new law defuncted the outdated regulations.
adjective
- Deceased, dead. The defunct patient was pronounced dead at the hospital.
- No longer in use, inactive. The defunct website was a relic of the past.
- Specifically, of a program: that has terminated but is still shown in the list of processes because the parent process that created it is still running and has not yet reaped it. The system administrator had to kill the defunct process to free up system resources.
Did you know? The word 'defunct' has been used in various contexts, including law, medicine, and computing, to describe something that is no longer in existence or operation.