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n. 1. a. A character weakness, especially a minor one. b. Something that impairs or detracts from physical perfection; a defect. See Synonyms at blemish. c. A mistake; an error: a grammatical fault; a fault in his reasoning. d. A minor offense or misdeed: committed her share of youthful faults. 2. Responsibility for a mistake or an offense; culpability. See Synonyms at blame. 3. Geology A fracture in the continuity of a rock formation caused by a shifting or dislodging of the earth's crust, in which adjacent surfaces are displaced relative to one another and parallel to the plane of fracture. Also called shift. 4. Electronics A defect in a circuit or wiring caused by imperfect connections, poor insulation, grounding, or shorting. 5. Sports A service of the ball that violates the rules in tennis and similar games. 6. Archaic A lack or deficiency. v. fault·ed, fault·ing, faults v.tr. 1. To find error or defect in; criticize or blame: faulted the author for poor research; faulted the book for inaccuracies. 2. Geology To produce a fault in; fracture. v.intr. Idioms: 1. To commit a mistake or an error. 2. Geology To shift so as to produce a fault. 3. Sports To commit a fault, as in tennis. at fault 1. Deserving of blame; guilty: admitted to being at fault. 2. Confused and puzzled. find fault To seek, find, and complain about faults; criticize: found fault with his speech. to a fault To an excessive degree: generous to a fault. [Middle English faulte, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *fallita, from variant of Latin falsa, feminine past participle of fallere, to deceive, fail.]  (click for a larger image) faulttop: normal fault center: reverse fault bottom: strike-slip fault |
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