Meaning of fault In English

• 0 a mistake, especially something for which you are to blame:

  • It's not my fault she didn't come!

  • She believes it was the doctor's fault that Peter died.

  • The fault was/lay with the organizers, who failed to make the necessary arrangements for dealing with so many people.

  • Through no fault of his own, he spent a week locked up in jail.

  • He has many faults, but dishonesty isn't one of them.

  • The car has a serious design fault.

  • An electrical fault caused the fire.

  • For all the faults in our education system, it is still better than that in many other countries.

  • Her doctor was at fault for/in not sending her straight to a specialist.

  • He's always finding fault with my work.

• 1 a crack in the earth's surface where the rock has divided into two parts that move against each other:

  • Surveyors say the fault line is capable of generating a major earthquake once in a hundred years.

• 2 to find a reason to criticize someone or something:

  • I can't fault the way they dealt with the complaint.

  • I can't fault you on your logic.

• 3 to hit a fault in tennis and other similar games:

  • That's the fourth serve he's faulted on today.

• 4 a quality in a person that shows that the person is not perfect, or a condition of something that shows that it is not working perfectly:

  • He loves me in spite of my faults.

  • Some people find fault in everything they see.

• 5 responsibility for a mistake or for having done something wrong:

  • I screwed up, so it was my fault we didn’t finish on time.

  • The driver was at fault (= responsible) for the accident – he was going too fast.

• 6 a crack in the earth’s surface where the rock is divided into two parts that can move against each other in an earthquake (= a sudden, violent movement of the earth’s surface)

• 7 to blame someone:

  • Professional athletes cannot be faulted for making millions of dollars when they attract the fans that make the sport popular.

• 8 something that is wrong with a machine or system:

  • The car had a serious design fault and had to be recalled.

  • An electrical fault caused the fire.

• 9 the fact of being responsible for something bad that happens:

  • be sb's fault (that) It was the traders' fault that so many billions were lost.

  • be the fault of sb The court found that the accident was the fault of the local authority.

  • the fault lies with sb We need to decide whether the fault lies with the buyer or the seller in this case.

• 10 relating to legal processes, insurance claims, etc. in which it is not necessary to decide who is responsible for a bad situation:

  • He introduced the nation's first no-fault auto insurance law.

  • a no-fault contract/divorce/system