- a defect or imperfection; flaw; failing: a fault in the brakes;a fault in one's character.
- responsibility for failure or a wrongful act: It is my fault that we have not finished.
- an error or mistake: a fault in addition.
- a misdeed or transgression: to confess one's faults.
- Sports. (in tennis, handball, etc.)
- a ball that when served does not land in the proper section of an opponent's court.
- a failure to serve the ball according to the rules, as from within a certain area.
- a break in the continuity of a body of rock or of a vein, with dislocation along the plane of the fracture (fault plane ).
- (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.
- a partial or total local failure in the insulation or continuity of a conductor or in the functioning of an electric system.
- a break in the line of scent; a losing of the scent; check.
- lack; want.
- to cause a fault in.
- to find fault with, blame, or censure.
- at fault,
- open to censure; blameworthy: to be at fault for a mistake.
- in a dilemma; puzzled: to be at fault as to where to go.
- (of hounds) unable to find the scent.
- to seek and make known defects or flaws; complain; criticize: He constantly found fault with my behavior.
- to an extreme degree; excessively: She was generous to a fault.
- an imperfection; failing or defect; flaw
- a mistake or error
- an offence; misdeed
- responsibility for a mistake or misdeed; culpability
- a defect in a circuit, component, or line, such as a short circuit
- a fracture in the earth's crust resulting in the relative displacement and loss of continuity of the rocks on either side of it
- an invalid serve, such as one that lands outside a prescribed area
- (in showjumping) a penalty mark given for failing to clear or refusing a fence, exceeding a time limit, etc
- an instance of the hounds losing the scent
- deficiency; lack; want
- at fault
- guilty of error; culpable
- perplexed
- (of hounds) having temporarily lost the scent
- to seek out minor imperfections or errors (in); carp (at)
- excessively
- to undergo or cause to undergo a fault
- to find a fault in, criticize, or blame
- to commit a fault