fault

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in tennis, a serve that is illegal, e.g one that lands outside the prescribed area

   They served too many double faults.

2. 2
   noun

   responsibility for a bad situation or event

   The mistake was completely my fault.

3. 3
   noun

   the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection

   I have a number of faults in my personality.

4. 4
   noun

   in electronics, equipment failure attributable to some defect in a circuit, such as a loose connection, insulation failure or short circuit

   It took much longer to find the fault than to fix it.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   an imperfection in an object or machine

   The toaster has a number of faults – I had to take it back to the retailer.

7. 7
   verb

   to put or pin the blame on

   I couldn't fault the intern for the mistakes that had been made.

8. 8
   noun

   Culpability; the responsibility for a blameworthy event.

   No, don't blame yourself. It's my fault that we lost the game.

Etymology

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, fa…