Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - fault

(faults, faulting, faulted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If a bad or undesirable situation is your fault, you caused it or are responsible for it. There was no escaping the fact: it was all his fault... A few borrowers will find themselves in trouble with their repayments through no fault of their own. N-SING: with poss 2. A fault is a mistake in what someone is doing or in what they have done. It is a big fault to think that you can learn how to manage people in business school. = error, mistake N-COUNT: usu with supp 3. A fault in someone or something is a weakness in them or something that is not perfect. His manners had always made her blind to his faults. ...a short delay due to a minor technical fault... = failing, flaw N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft poss N 4. If you cannot fault someone, you cannot find any reason for criticizing them or the things that they are doing. You can’t fault them for lack of invention... It is hard to fault the way he runs his own operation. VERB: with brd-neg, V n for n/-ing, V n 5. A fault is a large crack in the surface of the earth. ...the San Andreas Fault. N-COUNT 6. A fault in tennis is a service that is wrong according to the rules. N-COUNT 7. If someone or something is at fault, they are to blame or are responsible for a particular situation that has gone wrong. He could never accept that he had been at fault... PHRASE: v-link PHR 8. If you find fault with something or someone, you look for mistakes and complain about them. I was disappointed whenever the cook found fault with my work. PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR with n 9. If you say that someone has a particular good quality to a fault, you are emphasizing that they have more of this quality than is usual or necessary. Jefferson was generous to a fault... Others will tell you that she is modest to a fault, funny, clever and warm. PHRASE: usu adj PHR c darkgreen]emphasis