Forms: 3–7 (8, 9 dial.) faut(e, (5 fauute, fauȝt), 4–6 fawt(e, 5–7 falt, faulte, 5– fault. [ME. faut(e, a. OF. faute fem. (also faut masc.) = Pr., Sp., Pg., It. falta:—popular Lat. *fallita, a failing, coming short, f. *fallitus, popular Lat. pa. pple. of fallĕre: see FAIL v.
The earliest recorded spelling in Fr. is faute; the etymological l was inserted by some writers in 15ל17th c., and this example was followed in Eng. (our first certain instance being in the MSS. of Barbour written in 1487–9); from 17th c. the standard spelling has been fault, but in Pope and Swift it rimes with thought, wrought, and Johnson 1755 says that in conversation the l is generally suppressed.]
† 1. Deficiency, lack, scarcity, want of (something specified). rare in pl. Also used absol. (like want) = want of food or necessaries. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4504 (Cott.).
| For man þat weltres in his welis | |
| And, thoru his welth, na fautes felis. | |
| Ibid., 5385 (Cott.). | |
| Faut o bred was in þat tide. |
1340–70. Alex. & Dind., 303. & whan we faren to fed we finde no faute.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, IX. 318.
| [He] has the castell tan, | |
| Throu falt of vach. |
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 60. The Fowles faire for falt they fell off feete.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7628. He fande faute of honeste.
14[?]. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 95. The pore, for faute late þem not spylle!
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. clix. 193. They had gret faut in their hoost of vitayle.
1591. Coningsby, Siege of Rouen, in Camden Misc. (1847), I. 30. If you had seene it, you would have thoughte there had bene noe faulte of men, for the verie sicke men that had not bene for x. daies out of the strawe, came to aunswer the allarme.
† b. The amount deficient (in an account). Obs.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 20 March. He … is ready to lay down in ready money the fault of his account.
† c. For (the) fault of: in default of; in the absence of; through deficiency or want of. Obs.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 397/154. His fon haueþ moch of his lond for þe faute of þe y-nome.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7834.
| Ded me weren leuer by Ihesus, | |
| Than he starf for faut of ous. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 435. She swouned … for faute of blood.
c. 1420. Palladius on Husb., IV. 699. For faute of that gete other thinges goode.
1480. Bury Wills (1850), 56. For the favte of sweche issue the remandyre therof to the next heyre.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), N iij. I can not say it without teares, Rome is fallen frome the most hight of her estate, not for faut of money and armes, for to fight withall, but for lacke of wyse men, and vertuous, for to gouerne.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. ii. 45. One it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend.
1620. Frier Rush, 30. Rush beheld his Masters shoone, and perceiued that for fault of greasing they were very hard.
1685. Gracian’s Courtiers Orac., 221. Seriousness is wanting, for fault of which great qualities have no lustre in them.
1794. Burns, Gane is the day. We’ll ne’er stray for faute o’ light.
† 2. Default, failing, neglect. Without (any) fault (= Fr. sans faute): without fail; hence, for a certainty. Cf. FAIL sb. 1. Obs.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 1214.
| Thou schalt … have … folk inowe with thee; | |
| In us schall no fawte bee. |
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 34. Who-so … be nouthe þere … he schal paie a pound of wax for is faute.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 45 b. If ye wole telle me your name with out any faute, I shal telle yow myn also. Ibid. (c. 1489), Sonnes of Aymon, ix. 215. Now shall they be honged to morowe wythoute fawte.
c. 1500. Melusine, 318. My swete loue … there shal be no fawte of it.
1502. Bury Wills (Camden), 92. For fawte of thithing and offryng nectlygently forgotyn iij s. iiij d.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xviii. 22. Your ennemies … be within iii. myle of you … ther shall ye fynde them without faulte.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle (1627), 182. They are bred by euill meate, and fault of drinking good water.
3. A defect, imperfection, blameable quality or feature. a. in moral character. (Expressing a milder censure than vice.)
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 209. Ne vnder-nym nouȝte foule · for is none with-oute faute.
c. 1400. An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 100. We are not so sikir þat we be wiþ out faut, error, and vnkunning.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 1225. In me fforsothe no fauȝt þer nys.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Porrex vii.
| Can I excuse my selfe deuoyde of faut, | |
| Which my deare Prince and brother had fordonne? |
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xiv. 308. Not long after hat godly King, who had some defects, but few faults (and those rather in his age then person) came to his grave: it being uncertain whether he went, or was sent thither.
1784. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 113. A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself.
1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraik, xvii.
| There’s ae wee faut they whiles lay to me, | |
| I like the lasses—Gude forgie me! |
a. 1846. Landor, Imag. Comv., Wks. 1846, I. 464/1. Diogenes. Great men too often have greater faults than little men can find room for.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., ii. 44. His independence and love of the English were his only faults.
b. in physical or intellectual constitution, appearance, structure, workmanship, etc.
c. 1320. The Seuyn Sages (W.), 120.
| The fairest man of tham ilkane. | |
| Jesse was his name, God ote, | |
| Withouten faute fra heid to fote. |
1538. Starkey, England, II. i. 26. The commyn fautys and mysordurys of the same.
1599. Minsheu, Pleasant and Delightfull Dialogues in Spanish and English (1623), 57. The women generally … have three faults … litle eies, great mouthes, and not very smooth skin in the face.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xvii. 86–7. These creatures, having not (as man) the use of reason, do not see, nor think they see any fault, in the administration of their common business.
1675. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Ess. Poetry, 74. Where can one [song] be seen without a fault?
1713. Swift, Cadenus & Vanessa, 603.
| She own’d the Wand’ring of her Thoughts, | |
| But he must answer for her Faults. |
1884. Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Logic, 197. Among modern attemps to unfold in a scheme the meaning of the world there have been some grand ones which even seemed to avoid an essential fault of the Pythagorean theory.
c. In phrase To a fault (qualifying an adj.): to such an extent that it becomes a fault; excessively, extremely.
1752. Scots Mag., XV. 41/1. This was good-natur’d to a fault.
1762. Goldsm., Nash, Wks. 1881, IV. 89. She was … generous to a fault.
1849. D. G. Mitchell, Battle Summer (1852), 140. His dress is plain to a fault.
d. Comm. With all faults (now sometimes abbreviated ‘A.F.’ or ‘Job A.F.’): with all defects, i.e., the seller will not be answerable for them.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5400/4. To be taken away with all Faults.
† 4. An unsound or damaged place; a flaw, crack; Mil. a gap in the ranks. Obs.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 9.
| Gyve to the bestes good rowen in pleynte, | |
| And stoppe all the holes where thou can fautes se, | |
| Stop them with stubbyll, efte daube them with some claye, | |
| And whan thou hast done than come agayne thy waye. |
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 33.
| As patches set vpon a little breach, | |
| Discredite more in hiding of the fault. |
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., iii. (1623), G iij. First lift vp the stalls … and sweepe the stooles cleane: then setting them downe againe warily … cloome them close, and mend all brackes and faults about them.
1698. Sir T. Morgan, Progr. in France, in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 388. Major-general Morgan, observing the enemy mending faults, and opening the intervals of the foot, to bring horse in.
5. Something wrongly done. Phrase, To commit (rarely do, make) a fault. a. In moral sense: A dereliction of duty; a misdeed, transgression, offence. Also occas. Delinquency in general, ‘something wrong.’
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 177. For fele fautez may a freke forfete his blysse.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 66. Forto clense her of sertaine fauutes that she had done in her mariage.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 3.
| Faustus accused and blamed cytezyns, | |
| To them imputynge grete fautes, cryme, and synnes. |
1550. Crowley, The Last Trumpet, 753.
| Winke not at faltes that thou shalt se, | |
| Though it be in thy Souerayne; | |
| But do as it becometh the: | |
| Exhort hym all vice to refrayne. |
1611. Bible, Gen. xli. 9. Then spake the chiefe Butler vnto Pharaoh, saying, I doe remember my faults this day.
1748. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 310. Distresses … brought upon persons by their own faults.
a. 1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xvii. 219. A restless, undefinable sense of fault.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 250, The Republic, ii. A fault which is most serious, I said; the fault of telling a lie, and, what is more, a bad lie.
b. A failure in what is attempted; a slip, error, mistake. Now somewhat rare; lady teachers often use it in marking school exercises (after F. faute). In early use esp. † a clerical error or misprint.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. Author’s Pref. If any faute be in this my rude translacyon.
1559. W. Cuningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, A iij b. If faultes escape … with penne; spedely amende it.
1583. Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 359. Leave more space betwene both lines. That there maye be place to mende your faultes.
1633. E. Campion’s Hist. Irel. (at end). Faults escaped.
1701. De Foe, True-born Eng., Pref. The Book is Printed; and tho I see some Faults, ’tis too late to mend them.
1725. Watts, Logic, III. iii. There must be some fault in the deduction.
1774. Goldsm., Grecian Hist., II. 35. The other army … had made another fault, not less considerable.
1845. Graves, Rom. Law, in Encycl. Metrop., 775/1. The … faults of the Florentine MS. are corrected.
c. spec. in Rackets and Tennis. A faulty stroke; a stroke in which the server fails to make the ball fall within the prescribed limits.
1599. Chapman, Humorous Day’s Mirth, E ij. I gaue him fifteene and all his faults.
1611. Cotgr., Bisque, a fault at Tennis.
1679. Shadwell, True Widow, I. i. We’ll play with you at a Bisk, and a Fault, for twenty Pound.
1886. H. F. Wilkinson, Encycl. Brit., XX. 210/2 (Rackets). Two consecutive faults put a hand out.
1888. J. Marshall, ibid., XXIII. 182/2 (Tennis). It is a fault if the service be delivered from the wrong court.
6. a. To find (a) fault: to discover or perceive a fault (senses 3–5) in a person or thing. b. Hence, idiomatically, To find fault (with, † at): to express dissatisfaction (with), criticize unfavourably, censure.
a. a. 1375. The Lay Folks Mass Book, App. iv. 479.
| Faute þer-Inne · ȝif þat he fynde, | |
| Mak no scornynge · me be-hynde. |
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3837.
| Grete faute in thee now have I founde; | |
| By God, anoon thou shalt be bounde. |
c. 1440. York Myst., xx. 183. Fautez nowe are I founden fele.
1563–7. G. Buchanan, Reform. St. Andros, Wks. (1892), 9. Geif the regent find falt quhairof the nomenclator has nocht advertysit hym.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 29, 3 April, ¶ 3. The only Fault I find in our present Practice, is the making use of the Italian recitativo with English words.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 63. If he find any fault in her within three days.
b. c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4850. Rule vs by rightwisnes … þat no fawte with vs founden be.
1588. J. Udall, Diotrephes (Arb.), 6. Finding faut with him for one thing or another.
1593. Tell-Troth’s N. Y. Gift, 9. When a man will finde fault without cause, or a woman complaine of two much ease, it showes a troubled minde and breeds suspect.
1611. Bible, Mark vii. 2. When they saw some of his disciples eate bread with defiled … hands, they found fault.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 3. So impertinent must they needs bee, whose eyes are over curious, to find fault at Art there, where they have no cause, but to commend Nature.
1741. C. Middleton, Cicero (ed. 3), III. XI. 257. You find fault with me.
1776. Bentham, Fragm. Govt., Wks. 1843, I. 230. If nothing is ever to be found fault with, nothing will ever be mended.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 161, Protagoras. I am not given to finding fault.
1892. T. W. Erle, in Law Times, XCIII. 417/2. No fault was found with my suggestions.
7. a. With reference to persons: Culpability; the blame or responsibility of causing or permitting some untoward occurrence; the wrongdoing or negligence to which a specified evil is attributable. To be in († one’s, † the) fault: to be to blame. † To lay, put (a) fault † in, upon: to impute blame to. † To bear the fault: to bear the blame. It is my (his, etc.) fault: I am (he is, etc.) the person to blame for what has happened.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 103. And leyden fautes vpon þe fader þat fourmed vs alle.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 290. He will be found in his fault, that wantis.
1530. Crome, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. x. 20. I doo nott putt fawte in no man.
1530. Palsgr., 429/2. I am … in the faute that a thyng is a mysse, jay tort.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Northumbld., xix.
| This was my hap, my fortune, or my fawte | |
| This lyfe I led, and thus I came to naught. |
1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 206. To lay the faulte vpon Anthony.
1665. Boyle, Occasional Reflections, IV. xi. (1845), 235–6. Whils’t they judge upon incompetent Information, even when their Superiours are in the fault, they may be so, for censuring them.
1700. S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 349. The Master was in all the fault we told him, but he had his Punishment already.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. v. (1841), I. 96. Mo. Lay the fault on me, my dear, I’ll bear the blame.
1726–31. Tindal, Rapin’s Hist. Eng. (1743), II. XVII. 75. The Broachers and Workers thereof, who are in the greatest faults.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 73.
| What then? let Blood and Body bear the fault, | |
| Her Head’s untouch’d, that noble Seat of Thought. |
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 319. All is lost, but not through any fault of mine.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 22, ‘The County Ball.’
| And when weak Poets go astray, | |
| The stars are more in fault than they. |
1848. Dickens, Dombey, ii. It will be our own faults if we lose sight of this one.
1884. F. M. Crawford, Rom. Singer, I. 1. It was not any fault of mine.
¶ Incorrectly in plural, by the attraction of poss. adj. referring to two or more persons.
1738. Common Sense (1739), II. 242. Where this happens, it is their own Faults.
1774. Mitford, Ess. Harmony Lang., 228. It is our own faults if we err greatly.
b. The defect, the ‘something wrong’ (in things, conditions, etc.) to which a specified evil is attributable. (Phrases as in a.)
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 297.
| For giff it fall he thar-off failȝe, | |
| The fawt may be in his trawailȝe. |
1590. Sir J. Smythe, Disc. Weapons, 21. By the negligence of the Harquebuziers … or by the fault of the touch-boxes … the powder will take no fire.
1656. H. Phillips, Purch. Patt. (1676), 15. The fault lies in those false rules and customs.
1802. T. Beddoes, Hygëia, XI. 15. Rich sauces eaten in profusion … are very frequently in fault.
1807. Med. Jrnl., XVII. 244. The fault … is not in the practitioner but in the patient.
1859. Tennyson, Geraint & Enid, 1115. Mute As creatures voiceless thro’ the fault of birth.
8. Hunting. A break in the line of scent; loss of scent; a check caused by failure of scent. † Cold fault: cold or lost scent. To be, † fall at (a) fault: to overrun the line of scent owing to its irregularity or failure; to lose or be off the scent or track. To hit off a fault: to recover a lost scent.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 694.
| The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt, | |
| Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled | |
| With much ado the cold fault cleanly out. |
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 107. Suddenly the hounds fell at a fault.
1637. Shirley, The Lady of Pleasure, II. ii.
| Hair. Give him leave | |
| To follow his own nose, madam, while he hunts | |
| In view,—he’ll soon be at a fault. |
1687. Congreve, Old Bach., V. i. Your blood-hound has made out the fault.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, X. vi. Bad hounds … never hit off a fault themselves.
1781. P. Beckford, Hunting, 153. All these observations will be of use, should a long fault make his [the huntsman’s] assistance necessary; and if the hare has headed back, he will carefully observe, whether she met any thing in her course to turn her, or turned of her own accord.
1888. Times, 10 Oct., 5/5. They [bloodhounds] are at fault … by overrunning the line.
1888. P. Lindley, ibid., 16 Oct., 10/5. The hound … took up the stale trail … without a fault.
b. fig. At fault: puzzled, at a loss.
[1626. Wotton, in Reliq. Wotton. (ed. 3), 550. We are … at a fault, in the Hunter’s term.]
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. v. 87. One’s conscience being at fault, an appeal to the law must settle the matter.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, i. 1. My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault.
1861. T. L. Peacock, Gryll Grange, ii. There was sufficient diversity in the characters of the rejected to place conjecture at fault.
1886. Shorthouse, Sir Percival, iv. 121. The walls and courts and the very ground itself were so full of unexpected remnants and relics of the past that the wisest antiquarians were at fault.
¶ c. The phrase at fault is sometimes incorrectly used in the sense ‘not equal to the occasion,’ ‘in the position of having failed.’ With still greater impropriety, it is (according to Mr. Fitzedward Hall) frequently employed by American and occasionally by Eng. writers in the sense of ‘in fault.’
1876. L. Stephen, Eng. Thought, I. vi. 324. The many difficulties in nature … when made the groundwork of an argument … imply that the creator has been at fault.
9. Geol. and Mining. A dislocation or break in continuity of the strata or vein. Cf. F. faille.
1796. Phil. Trans., 351. They discovered … a fault … in the strata.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 263. Faults generally decline a little from a vertical position.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 43. The faults and dislocations of the strata.
1847. Ansted, Anc. World, vi. 108. Every coal-field is … split asunder and broken into small fragments by … ‘faults.’
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxvii. 392. The [ice] beds were bent, and their continuity often broken by faults.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man (ed. 3), 199. A valley which follows a line of fault in the chalk.
1883. W. S. Gresley, Gloss. Terms Coal Mining, 102. There are several kinds of faults, e. g. Faults of Dislocation; of Denudation; Upheaval; Trough Fault; Reverse or Overlap Fault; Step Fault; Thinning outs.
b. (See quot.)
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., s.v. In coal-seams, sometimes applied to the coal rendered worthless by its condition in the seam (slate-fault, dirt-fault, etc.).
10. Telegr. An imperfect insulation; the condition of being in contact with anything which impairs or weakens the current; a leakage.
1863. Culley, Handbk. Pract. Telegr., iv. 64. These faults are called ‘earth’ and ‘contact.’ Ibid., iv. 65. Suppose … a fault to occur connecting the wire to the earth…. This leak will lessen the total resistance.
11. Comb. Chiefly objective, as fault-finder sb.; fault-finding sb. and adj.; fault-hunting adj.; attrib. (sense 9) fault-line. Also fault-reader, one who can trace the correspondence of strata interrupted by a fault; fault-rock, fault-stuff (see quots.); fault-slip, the smooth surface of the fractured rocks in some types of faults.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, Epist. C ij b. I confesse to my *faultfinders.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 49. These other Fault-finders, who wil correct the Verbe, before they vnderstande the Noune, and confute others knowledge before they confirme theyr owne: I would haue them onely remember, that scoffing commeth not of wisedom.
1852. Robertson, Serm., Ser. IV. xxxv. (1863), 273. Social faultfinders, who are ever on the watch for error.
1626. Bernard, Isle of Man, 20. He … liveth upon *fault-finding.
1865. Miss Mulock, Chr. Mistake, 90. Small backbitings and fault-findings.
1622. Davies, Orchestra, lxv.
| And correspondence ev’ry way, the same, | |
| That no *fault-finding eye did ever blame. |
1630. M. Godwyn, trans. Bp. Godwyn’s Ann. Eng., 43. The most fault finding could not complaine of any want in that kinde.
1612. Chapman, The Widowes Tears, in Dodsley, O Pl. (1720), VI. 210. I must sit fast, and be sure to give no hold to these *fault-hunting enemies.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., vii. 197. On such a *fault-line atmospheric vicissitude has been effective in the valley of Somma, and volcanic ejections have operated on the other.
1891. R. Kipling, City Dreadf. Nt., 85. A good *‘fault-reader’ … must more than know geology.
1877. A. H. Green, Phys. Geol., ix. § 4. 365. Fragments of the adjoining rocks mashed and jumbled together, in some cases bound into a solid mass called fault-stuff or *fault-rock.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., IV. VI. 524. The line of fracture is marked by a belt or wall-like mass of fragmentary rock, known as ‘fault rock.’
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Terms Coal Mining, *Fault-slip.
1811. J. Farey, Agric. Derbysh., I. i. § 3. 120. Extraneous matters filling the Fault … I shall call them *Fault-stuff.
1877. [see fault-rock above].
