From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
fault
n 1: 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" [syn: mistake, error,
fault]
2: an imperfection in an object or machine; "a flaw caused the
crystal to shatter"; "if there are any defects you should
send it back to the manufacturer" [syn: defect, fault,
flaw]
3: 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"
[syn: demerit, fault] [ant: merit, virtue]
4: (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" [syn: fault, faulting,
geological fault, shift, fracture, break]
5: (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"
6: responsibility for a bad situation or event; "it was John's
fault"
7: (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside
the prescribed area); "he served too many double faults"
v 1: put or pin the blame on [syn: blame, fault] [ant:
absolve, free, justify]