fault

fault (fôlt)

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.

d. A minor offense or misdeed.

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 bad service, as in tennis.

6. Obsolete A lack or deficiency.

v. fault·ed, fault·ing, faults

v.tr.

1. To find error or defect in; criticize or blame.

2. Geology To produce a fault in; fracture.

v.intr.

1. To commit a mistake or an error.

2. Geology To shift so as to produce a fault.

Idioms:

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.]

fault

top: normal fault

center: reverse fault

bottom: strike-slip fault

fault

Noun

1. responsibility for something wrong

2. a defect or failing: they shut the production line to remedy a fault

3. a weakness in a person's character

4. Geol a fracture in the earth's crust with displacement of the rocks on either side

5. Tennis, squash, etc. a serve that bounces outside the proper service court or fails to get over the net

6. (in showjumping) a penalty mark for failing to clear, or refusing, a fence

7. at fault to be to blame for something wrong

8. find fault with to seek out minor imperfections in

9. to a fault more than is usual or necessary: generous to a fault

Verb

1. to criticize or blame

2. Geol to undergo or cause to undergo a fault [Latin fallere to fail]

faultless adj
faultlessly adv

fault (fôlt)

A fracture in a rock formation along which there has been movement of the blocks of rock on either side of the plane of fracture. Faults are caused by plate-tectonic forces. See more at normal fault reverse fault strike-slip fault thrust fault transform fault See Note at earthquake.

A Closer Look Bedrock, the solid rock just below the soil, is often cracked along surfaces known as planes. Cracks can extend up to hundreds of kilometers in length. When tensional and compressional stresses cause rocks separated by a crack to move past each other, the crack is known as a fault. Faults can be horizontal, vertical, or oblique. The movement can occur in the sudden jerks known as earthquakes. Normal faults, or tensional faults, occur when the rocks above the fault plane move down relative to the rocks below it, pulling the rocks apart. Where there is compression and folding, such as in mountainous regions, the rocks above the plane move upward relative to the rocks below the plane; these are called reverse faults. Strike-slip faults occur when shearing stress causes rocks on either side of the crack to slide parallel to the fault plane between them. Transform faults are strike-slip faults in which the crack is part of a boundary between two tectonic plates. A well-known example is the San Andreas Fault in California. Geologists use sightings of displaced outcroppings to infer the presence of faults, and they study faults to learn the history of the forces that have acted on rocks.

fault

left to right: normal, reverse, and strike-slip faults

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Noun	1.	fault - a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention; "he made a bad mistake"; "she was quick to point out my errors"; "I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults" error, mistake nonaccomplishment, nonachievement - an act that does not achieve its intended goal blot, smirch, smear, stain, spot - an act that brings discredit to the person who does it; "he made a huge blot on his copybook" mix-up, confusion - a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another; "he changed his name in order to avoid confusion with the notorious outlaw" incursion - the mistake of incurring liability or blame miscalculation, misestimation, misreckoning - a mistake in calculating distortion - the mistake of misrepresenting the facts parapraxis, slip-up, miscue, slip - a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc. offside - (sport) the mistake of occupying an illegal position on the playing field (in football, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, etc.) lapse, oversight - a mistake resulting from inattention omission, skip - a mistake resulting from neglect blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, botch, bungle, flub, foul-up, fuckup, pratfall, bloomer - an embarrassing mistake balls-up, ballup, cockup, mess-up - something badly botched or muddled betise, folly, imbecility, stupidity, foolishness - a stupid mistake renege, revoke - the mistake of not following suit when able to do so
	2.	fault - an imperfection in an object or machine; "a flaw caused the crystal to shatter"; "if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer" flaw, defect imperfection, imperfectness - the state or an instance of being imperfect blister - a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint) glitch, bug - a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine hole - a fault; "he shot holes in my argument"
	3.	fault - the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection; "they discussed the merits and demerits of her novel"; "he knew his own faults much better than she did" demerit worth - the quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful
	4.	fault - (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other; "they built it right over a geological fault"; "he studied the faulting of the earth's crust" faulting, geological fault, fracture, break, shift geology - a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks fault line - (geology) line determined by the intersection of a geological fault and the earth's surface crack, scissure, cleft, crevice, fissure - a long narrow opening inclined fault - a geological fault in which one side is above the other strike-slip fault - a geological fault in which one of the adjacent surfaces appears to have moved horizontally
	5.	fault - (electronics) equipment failure attributable to some defect in a circuit (loose connection or insulation failure or short circuit etc.); "it took much longer to find the fault than to fix it" electronics - the branch of physics that deals with the emission and effects of electrons and with the use of electronic devices equipment failure, breakdown - a cessation of normal operation; "there was a power breakdown"
	6.	fault - responsibility for a bad situation or event; "it was John's fault" responsibleness, responsibility - a form of trustworthiness; the trait of being answerable to someone for something or being responsible for one's conduct; "he holds a position of great responsibility"
	7.	fault - (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area); "he served too many double faults" double fault - (tennis) two successive faults in serving resulting in the loss of the point footfault - a fault that occurs when the server in tennis fails to keep both feet behind the baseline squash rackets, squash racquets, squash - a game played in an enclosed court by two or four players who strike the ball with long-handled rackets badminton - a game played on a court with light long-handled rackets used to volley a shuttlecock over a net lawn tennis, tennis - a game played with rackets by two or four players who hit a ball back and forth over a net that divides the court serve, service - (sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play; "his powerful serves won the game"
Verb	1.	fault - put or pin the blame on blame accuse, charge - blame for, make a claim of wrongdoing or misbehavior against; "he charged the director with indifference"

fault

noun 1. responsibility, liability, guilt, accountability, culpability

noun 2. mistake, slip, error, offence, blunder, lapse, negligence, omission, boob Brit. (slang) oversight, slip-up, indiscretion, inaccuracy, howler (informal) glitch (informal) error of judgment, boo-boo (informal) barry or Barry Crocker Austral. (slang)

noun 3. failing, lack, weakness, defect, deficiency, flaw, drawback, shortcoming, snag, blemish, imperfection, Achilles heel, weak point, infirmity, demerit << OPPOSITE strength

verb 4. criticize, blame, complain, condemn, moan about, censure, hold (someone) responsible, hold (someone) accountable, find fault with, call to account, impugn, find lacking, hold (someone) to blame >> at fault guilty, responsible, to blame, accountable, in the wrong, culpable, answerable, blamable find fault with something or someone criticize, complain about, whinge about (informal) whine about (informal) quibble, diss (slang), chiefly U.S. carp at, take to task, pick holes in, grouse about (informal) haul over the coals (informal) pull to pieces to a fault excessively, overly U.S. unduly, ridiculously, in the extreme, needlessly, out of all proportion, preposterously, overmuch, immoderately

Translations