What is "fault"

Fault \Fault\, n. [OE. faut, faute, F. faute (cf. It., Sp., & Pg. falta), fr. a verb meaning to want, fail, freq., fr. L. fallere to deceive. See Fail, and cf. Default.]

1. Defect; want; lack; default.

   One, it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend.
   --Shak.

2. Anything that fails, that is wanting, or that impairs excellence; a failing; a defect; a blemish.

   As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault.
   --Shak.

3. A moral failing; a defect or dereliction from duty; a deviation from propriety; an offense less serious than a crime.

4. (Geol. & Mining)

   1. A dislocation of the strata of the vein.

   2. In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam; as, slate fault, dirt fault, etc.
      --Raymond.

5. (Hunting) A lost scent; act of losing the scent.

   Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, With much ado, the cold fault cleary out.
   --Shak.

6. (Tennis) Failure to serve the ball into the proper court.

7. (Elec.) A defective point in an electric circuit due to a crossing of the parts of the conductor, or to contact with another conductor or the earth, or to a break in the circuit.

8. (Geol. & Mining) A dislocation caused by a slipping of rock masses along a plane of facture; also, the dislocated structure resulting from such slipping.

   Note: The surface along which the dislocated masses have moved is called the

   fault plane. When this plane is vertical, the fault is a

   vertical fault; when its inclination is such that the present relative position of the two masses could have been produced by the sliding down, along the fault plane, of the mass on its upper side, the fault is a

   normal fault, or gravity fault. When the fault plane is so inclined that the mass on its upper side has moved up relatively, the fault is then called a

   reverse fault (or reversed fault), thrust fault, or overthrust fault. If no vertical displacement has resulted, the fault is then called a

   horizontal fault. The linear extent of the dislocation measured on the fault plane and in the direction of movement is the

   displacement; the vertical displacement is the

   throw; the horizontal displacement is the

   heave. The direction of the line of intersection of the fault plane with a horizontal plane is the

   trend of the fault. A fault is a

   strike fault when its trend coincides approximately with the strike of associated strata (i.e., the line of intersection of the plane of the strata with a horizontal plane); it is a

   dip fault when its trend is at right angles to the strike; an

   oblique fault when its trend is oblique to the strike. Oblique faults and dip faults are sometimes called

   cross faults. A series of closely associated parallel faults are sometimes called

   step faults and sometimes

   distributive faults.

   At fault, unable to find the scent and continue chase; hence, in trouble or embarrassment, and unable to proceed; puzzled; thrown off the track.

   To find fault, to find reason for blaming or complaining; to express dissatisfaction; to complain; -- followed by with before the thing complained of; but formerly by at. ``Matter to find fault at.''
   --Robynson (More's Utopia).

   Syn: -- Error; blemish; defect; imperfection; weakness; blunder; failing; vice.

   Usage: Fault, Failing, Defect, Foible. A fault is positive, something morally wrong; a failing is negative, some weakness or falling short in a man's character, disposition, or habits; a defect is also negative, and as applied to character is the absence of anything which is necessary to its completeness or perfection; a foible is a less important weakness, which we overlook or smile at. A man may have many failings, and yet commit but few faults; or his faults and failings may be few, while his foibles are obvious to all. The faults of a friend are often palliated or explained away into mere defects, and the defects or foibles of an enemy exaggerated into faults. ``I have failings in common with every human being, besides my own peculiar faults; but of avarice I have generally held myself guiltless.''
   --Fox. ``Presumption and self-applause are the foibles of mankind.''
   --Waterland.

Fault \Fault\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Faulted; p. pr. & vb. n. Faulting.]

1. To charge with a fault; to accuse; to find fault with; to blame. [Obs.]

   For that I will not fault thee.
   --Old Song.

2. (Geol.) To interrupt the continuity of (rock strata) by displacement along a plane of fracture; -- chiefly used in the p. p.; as, the coal beds are badly faulted.

Fault \Fault\, v. i. To err; to blunder, to commit a fault; to do wrong. [Obs.]

If after Samuel's death the people had asked of God a king, they had not faulted.
--Latimer.

late 13c., faute, "deficiency," from Old French faute, earlier falte, "opening, gap; failure, flaw, blemish; lack, deficiency" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fallita "a shortcoming, falling," from Latin falsus "deceptive, feigned, spurious," past participle of fallere "deceive, disappoint" (see fail (v.)).\n

\nThe -l- was restored 16c., probably in imitation of Latin, but the letter was silent until 18c. Sense of "physical defect" is from early 14c.; that of "moral culpability" is first recorded late 14c. Geological sense is from 1796. The use in tennis (c.1600) is closer to the etymological sense.

"find fault with," mid-15c. from fault (n.). Earlier it was used in an intransitive sense of "be deficient" (late 14c., Scottish). Related: Faulted; faulter; faulting.

n. 1 A defect; something that detracts from perfection. 2 A mistake or error. 3 A weakness of character; a failing. 4 A minor offense. 5 blame; the responsibility for a mistake. 6 (context seismology English) A fracture in a rock formation causing a discontinuity. 7 (context mining English) In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam. 8 (context tennis English) An illegal serve. 9 (context electrical English) An abnormal connection in a circuit. 10 (context obsolete English) want; lack 11 (context hunting English) A lost scent; act of losing the scent. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To criticize, blame or find fault with something or someone. 2 (context intransitive geology English) To fracture. 3 (context intransitive English) To commit a mistake or error. 4 (context intransitive computing English) To undergo a page fault.

1. n. responsibility for a bad situation or event; "it was John's fault"

2. (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" [syn: geological fault, shift, fracture, break]

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] [ant: merit]

4. 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]

5. an imperfection in a device or machine; "if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer" [syn: defect, flaw]

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

7. (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"

8. v. put or pin the blame on [syn: blame] [ant: absolve]

Fault may refer to:

• Fault (geology), planar rock fractures which show evidence of relative movement
• Fault (dog), in dog breeding, is an undesirable aspect of structure or appearance that indicates the dog should not be bred
• Fault (legal), in criminal law, one must determine fault in a crime
• Fault (technology), an abnormal condition or defect at the component, equipment, or sub-system level which may lead to a failure
• Fault (tennis), a serve that fails to place a tennis ball in the correct area of play
• Fault (power engineering), an unintended electrical connection, a "short circuit", of several kinds
• Fault (computing), also called a trap or an exception, a type of interrupt in software or operating systems
• A penalty in show jumping applied in scoring horse and rider performance
• Faults (film), a 2014 film
• "Fault", a song by Taproot from Welcome

In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock mass movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes.

A fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A ''fault trace '' or fault line is the intersection of a fault plane with the ground surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault.

Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, geologists use the term fault zone when referring to the zone of complex deformation associated with the fault plane.

The two sides of a non-vertical fault are known as the hanging wall and footwall. By definition, the hanging wall occurs above the fault plane and the footwall occurs below the fault. This terminology comes from mining: when working a tabular ore body, the miner stood with the footwall under his feet and with the hanging wall hanging above him.

In animal breed standards, a fault is an aspect of appearance or temperament that is considered detrimental to the breed type of the animal's breed. In dogs, faults have to do with the externally observable qualities of the dog such as appearance, movement, and temperament. Qualities separately tested such as tests for ability in specific work or sports, tests for genetic health, tests for general health or specific inherited disease, or any other specific tests for characteristics that cannot be directly observed are not described with the term fault. Minor faults may or may not have anything to do with the individual dog's ability to work or suitability as a pet.

In document ISO 10303-226, a fault is defined as an abnormal condition or defect at the component, equipment, or sub-system level which may lead to a failure.

In telecommunications, according to the Federal Standard 1037C of the United States, the term fault has the following meanings:

1. An accidental condition that causes a functional unit to fail to perform its required function. See .
2. A defect that causes a reproducible or catastrophic malfunction. A malfunction is considered reproducible if it occurs consistently under the same circumstances. See .
3. In power systems, an unintentional short-circuit, or partial short-circuit, between energized conductors or between an energized conductor and ground. A distinction can be made between symmetric and asymmetric faults. See Fault (power engineering).

In an electric power system, a '''fault ''' or fault current is any abnormal electric current. For example, a short circuit is a fault in which current bypasses the normal load. An open-circuit fault occurs if a circuit is interrupted by some failure. In three-phase systems, a fault may involve one or more phases and ground, or may occur only between phases. In a "ground fault" or "earth fault", current flows into the earth. The prospective short circuit current of a predictable fault can be calculated for most situations. In power systems, protective devices can detect fault conditions and operate circuit breakers and other devices to limit the loss of service due to a failure.

In a polyphase system, a fault may affect all phases equally which is a "symmetrical fault". If only some phases are affected, the resulting "asymmetrical fault" becomes more complicated to analyse. The analysis of these types of faults is often simplified by using methods such as symmetrical components.

The design of systems to detect and interrupt power system faults is the main objective of power-system protection.

Fault, as a legal term, refers to legal blameworthiness and responsibility in each area of law. It refers to both the actus reus and the mental state of the defendant. The basic principle is that a defendant should be able to contemplate the harm that his actions may cause, and therefore should aim to avoid such actions. Different forms of liability employ different notions of fault, in some there is no need to prove fault, but the absence of it.

In criminal law, the mens rea is used to decide if the defendant has criminal intent when he commits the act and, if so, he is therefore liable for the crime. However, this is not necessary for strict liability offences, where no state of mind is required.