1. (

• mistake ,
• error ,
• fault

) 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" ;

2. (

• defect ,
• fault ,
• flaw

) 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" ;

3. (

• demerit ,
• fault

) 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" ;

4. (

• fault ,
• faulting ,
• geological_fault ,
• shift ,
• fracture ,
• break

) (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" ;

5. (

• fault

) (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. (

• fault ,

) responsibility for a bad situation or event; "it was John's fault" ;

7. (

• fault ,

) (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area); "he served too many double faults" ;

1. (

• blame ,
• fault

) put or pin the blame on ;