Link Centre Dictionary

fault

UK/fɔːlt/ US/fɒlt/ very common
noun (7) verb (1)

noun

1.

responsibility for a bad situation or event

  • “it was John”
2.

(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”
Synonyms
3.

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”
Synonyms
Antonyms
4.

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”
Synonyms
5.

an imperfection in a device or machine

  • “if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer”
Synonyms
6.

(sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area)

  • “he served too many double faults”
7.

(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”

verb

1.

put or pin the blame on

Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr (“fault, vice, crime”)). Compare French faute (“fault, foul”), Portuguese falta (“lack, shortage”) and Spanish falta (“lack, absence”). More at fail, false.

Phrases

  • a fault confessed is half redressed
  • active fault
  • arc fault
  • at fault
  • blind thrust fault
  • Byzantine fault tolerance
  • dextral fault
  • double fault

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.