fault

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, false.

noun

1. A defect; something that detracts from perfection.
2. A mistake or error.
   No! This is my fault, not yours.
3. A weakness of character; a failing.
   Despite for all her faults, she’s a good person at heart.
4. A characteristic, positive or negative or both, which subjects a person or thing to increased risk of danger.
   You're still young, that's your fault.
   1970, Cat Stevens, Tea for the Tillerman, Father and Son:
5. A minor offense.
6. Blame; the responsibility for a mistake.
   The fault lies with you.
   A police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a note found at the scene addressed to Ms. [Kate] Spade's 13-year-old daughter indicated, among other things, that what had happened was not the child’s fault. 5 June 2018, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-06
7. (seismology) A fracture in a rock formation causing a discontinuity.
8. (mining) In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam.
   slate fault  dirt fault
9. (tennis) An illegal serve.
10. (electrical) An abnormal connection in a circuit.
11. (obsolete) want; lack
12. (hunting) A lost scent; act of losing the scent.

verb

1. (transitive) To criticize, blame or find fault with something or someone.
   For that, says he, I ne'er will fault thee / But for humbleness exalt thee. a. 1723, unknown author, The Devonshire Nymph
2. (intransitive, geology) To fracture.
3. (intransitive) To commit a mistake or error.
4. (intransitive, computing) To undergo a page fault.
   When a page is read in, a few pages surrounding the faulted page are typically loaded as well in the same I/O operation in an effort to head off future page faults. 2002, Æleen Frisch, Essential system administration