- 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"

- (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area)
"he served too many double faults"

- responsibility for a bad situation or event
"it was John''s 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"

- (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"

- (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"

- an imperfection in a device or machine
"if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer"

- put or pin the blame on

1. Defect; want; lack; default.

"One, it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend." -- Shak.

2. Anything that fails, that is wanting, or that impairs excellence; a failing; a defect; a blemish.

"As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault." -- Shak.

3. A moral failing; a defect or dereliction from duty; a deviation from propriety; an offense less serious than a crime.

4. (Geol. & Mining) (a) A dislocation of the strata of the vein. (b) In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam; as, slate fault, dirt fault, etc. Raymond.

5. (Hunting) A lost scent; act of losing the scent.

"Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, With much ado, the cold fault cleary out." -- Shak.

6. (Tennis) Failure to serve the ball into the proper court.

At fault
unable to find the scent and continue chase; hence, in trouble or embarrassment, and unable to proceed; puzzled; thrown off the track.

To find fault
to find reason for blaming or complaining; to express dissatisfaction; to complain; -- followed by with before the thing complained of; but formerly by at. "Matter to find fault at." Robynson (More's Utopia).

Syn. -- -- Error; blemish; defect; imperfection; weakness; blunder; failing; vice. -- Fault, Failing, Defect, Foible. A fault is positive, something morally wrong; a failing is negative, some weakness or falling short in a man's character, disposition, or habits; a defect is also negative, and as applied to character is the absence of anything which is necessary to its completeness or perfection; a foible is a less important weakness, which we overlook or smile at. A man may have many failings, and yet commit but few faults; or his faults and failings may be few, while his foibles are obvious to all. The faults of a friend are often palliated or explained away into mere defects, and the defects or foibles of an enemy exaggerated into faults. "I have failings in common with every human being, besides my own peculiar faults; but of avarice I have generally held myself guiltless." Fox. "Presumption and self-applause are the foibles of mankind." Waterland.

1. To charge with a fault; to accuse; to find fault with; to blame. [Obs.]

"For that I will not fault thee." -- Old Song.

2. (Geol.) To interrupt the continuity of (rock strata) by displacement along a plane of fracture; -- chiefly used in the p. p.; as, the coal beds are badly faulted.

1. To err; to blunder, to commit a fault; to do wrong. [Obs.]

"If after Samuel's death the people had asked of God a king, they had not faulted." -- Latimer.

1. A defective point in an electric circuit due to a crossing of the parts of the conductor, or to contact with another conductor or the earth, or to a break in the circuit.

2. (Geol. & Mining) A dislocation caused by a slipping of rock masses along a plane of facture; also, the dislocated structure resulting from such slipping.

The surface along which the dislocated masses have moved is called the fault plane
When this plane is vertical, the fault is a vertical fault
; when its inclination is such that the present relative position of the two masses could have been produced by the sliding down, along the fault plane, of the mass on its upper side, the fault is a normal
or gravity
fault
When the fault plane is so inclined that the mass on its upper side has moved up relatively, the fault is then called a reverse
(or reversed
), thrust
or overthrust
fault
If no vertical displacement has resulted, the fault is then called a horizontal fault
The linear extent of the dislocation measured on the fault plane and in the direction of movement is the displacement
; the vertical displacement is the throw
; the horizontal displacement is the heave
The direction of the line of intersection of the fault plane with a horizontal plane is the trend
of the fault. A fault is a strike fault
when its trend coincides approximately with the strike of associated strata (i.e., the line of intersection of the plane of the strata with a horizontal plane); it is a dip fault
when its trend is at right angles to the strike; an oblique fault
when its trend is oblique to the strike. Oblique faults and dip faults are sometimes called cross faults
A series of closely associated parallel faults are sometimes called step faults
and sometimes distributive faults