Fault Definition
- Deserving of blame; guilty:
admitted to being at fault.
- Confused and puzzled.
- To seek, find, and complain about faults; criticize:
found fault with his speech.
- To an excessive degree:
generous to a fault.
- unable to find the scent
- not knowing what to do; perplexed
- to seek and point out faults (of); complain (about); criticize
Other Word Forms of Fault
Noun
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Fault
- at fault
- find fault
- to a fault
- at fault
- find fault (with)
- to a fault
Origin of Fault
-
From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman and Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), from 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, löstr (“fault, vice, crime”)).
From Wiktionary
Middle English faulte from Old French from Vulgar Latin fallita from variant of Latin falsa feminine past participle of fallere to deceive, fail
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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