fault: Meaning and Definition of

fault

1. a defect or imperfection; flaw; failing: a fault in the brakes; a fault in one's character.
2. responsibility for failure or a wrongful act: It is my fault that we have not finished.
3. an error or mistake: a fault in addition.
4. a misdeed or transgression: to confess one's faults.
5. (in tennis, handball, etc.)
1. a ball that when served does not land in the proper section of an opponent's court.
2. a failure to serve the ball according to the rules, as from within a certain area.
6. a break in the continuity of a body of rock or of a vein, with dislocation along the plane of the fracture
7. (of a horse jumping in a show) any of a number of improper executions in negotiating a jump, as a tick, knockdown, refusal, or run-out.
8. a partial or total local failure in the insulation or continuity of a conductor or in the functioning of an electric system.
9. a break in the line of scent; a losing of the scent; check.
10. lack; want.
11. to be at fault for a mistake.
1. open to censure; blameworthy:to be at fault for a mistake.
2. in a dilemma; puzzled:to be at fault as to where to go.
3. (of hounds) unable to find the scent.
12. to seek and make known defects or flaws; complain; criticize: He constantly found fault with my behavior.
13. to an extreme degree; excessively: She was generous to a fault.

1. to commit a fault; blunder; err.
2. to undergo faulting.

1. to cause a fault in.
2. to find fault with, blame, or censure.