1formalGOOD POINT OR CHARACTERISTIC a bad quality or feature of something 缺点,短处
demerit of
The merits and demerits (=the good and bad qualities) of this argument have been explored.
对这一论点的优缺点已经作了探讨。
2.American EnglishAmESES a mark showing that a student has behaved badly at school 过失〔学生在校行为不良的记录〕 → merit
Examples from the Corpus
demerit• With the particular merits and demerits of these proposals I am not here directly concerned.• And Lord Hodson was concerned primarily with the substantive merits and demerits of the Bill, not with its legaltechnicalities.• You get demerits if you miss a meeting or come late to dinner without calling beforehand.• We sort of kept this demeritscoreboard for the last eight years, until we ran out of space.