Definition of "demerit" [de•mer•it]

• A quality or characteristic deserving of blame or censure; a fault. (noun)
• Absence of merit. (noun)
• A mark made against one's record for a fault or for misconduct. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I never thought of this business of merit and demerit, which is able to change our lives in the twinkling of an eye, and which actually brought me down to a pretty low estate."
• "That which intimately comprises the nature of repentance is, sorrow on account of sin committed, and of its demerit, which is so much the deeper, as the acknowledgment of sin is clearer, and more copious."
• "But what had disturbed Jill even more than the demerit was the failure of the colleague present at her belittlement to speak a single word in her defense."