Fault

Defect; want; lack; default.

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

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

A dislocation of the strata of the vein.

In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam; as, slate fault, dirt fault, etc.

A lost scent; act of losing the scent.

Failure to serve the ball into the proper court.

To charge with a fault; to accuse; to find fault with; to blame.

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.

To err; to blunder, to commit a fault; to do wrong.

(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"; "he studied the faulting of the earth's crust"

(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"

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"

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"