【Disadvantage】 , 【detriment】 , 【handicap】 , 【drawback】  mean something which interferes with the success or well-being of a person or thing.

【Disadvantage】 often implies an act, circumstance, or condition which threatens to affect or does actually affect a person or thing unfavorably or injuriously.

It may therefore suggest a mere deprivation of advantage or, more positively, an appreciable loss or injury.

【Detriment】 usually implies a suffering of harm or a sustaining of damage or a cause of harm or damage but carries no direct indication of the extent of actual or probable harm or damage; it is therefore often used in the negative phrase "without 【detriment】 " assuring safety with regard either to the past or to the future.

【Handicap】 retains a suggestion of its application to a competitive struggle (see ADVANTAGE) but greatly extends that application to include various struggles into which an ordinary individual may be pushed by inclination or circumstances; it also refers to a 【disadvantage】 under which the person so placed must live or work.

【Drawback】 applies especially to a 【disadvantage】 that serves to retard a person’s or thing’s progress or advance in any way.

Often, however, it means no more than an objectionable feature of a person or thing that constitutes a 【disadvantage】  from some point of view usually implicit in the context.