to a fault

faulttop: normal faultcenter: reverse faultbottom: strike-slip fault

fault

F0053800 (fôlt)n.1. a. A character weakness, especially a minor one.b. Something that impairs or detracts from physical perfection; a defect. See Synonyms at blemish.c. A mistake; an error: a grammatical fault; a fault in his reasoning.d. A minor offense or misdeed: committed her share of youthful faults.2. Responsibility for a mistake or an offense; culpability. See Synonyms at blame.3. Geology A fracture in the continuity of a rock formation caused by a shifting or dislodging of the earth's crust, in which adjacent surfaces are displaced relative to one another and parallel to the plane of fracture. Also called shift.4. Electronics A defect in a circuit or wiring caused by imperfect connections, poor insulation, grounding, or shorting.5. Sports A service of the ball that violates the rules in tennis and similar games.6. Archaic A lack or deficiency.v. fault·ed, fault·ing, faults v.tr.1. To find error or defect in; criticize or blame: faulted the author for poor research; faulted the book for inaccuracies.2. Geology To produce a fault in; fracture.v.intr.1. To commit a mistake or an error.2. Geology To shift so as to produce a fault.3. Sports To commit a fault, as in tennis.Idioms: at fault1. Deserving of blame; guilty: admitted to being at fault.2. Confused and puzzled. find fault To seek, find, and complain about faults; criticize: found fault with his speech. to a fault To an excessive degree: generous to a fault.

[Middle English faulte, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *fallita, from variant of Latin falsa, feminine past participle of fallere, to deceive, fail.]

Thesaurus

Adv.

to a fault - to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits; "too big"excessively, overly, too

Translations

过分

fault

(foːlt) noun1. a mistake; something for which one is to blame. The accident was your fault.过错2. an imperfection; something wrong. There is a fault in this machine; a fault in his character.毛病3. a crack in the rock surface of the earth. faults in the earth's crust.断层 verb to find fault with. I couldn't fault him / his piano-playing.找...的缺点ˈfaultless adjective without fault; perfect. a faultless performance.完美无缺的ˈfaultlessly adverb完美无缺地ˈfaulty adjective (usually of something mechanical) not made or working correctly. 有缺陷的at fault wrong or to blame. She was at fault.有过错find fault with to criticize or complain of. She is always finding fault with the way he eats.挑剔to a fault to too great an extent. She was generous to a fault.过分

to a fault

To an extreme to excessive degree; more than is usual or necessary. Jim is polite to a fault—it can actually be a little bit irritating sometimes. The police sergeant is honest to a fault, following every regulation and guideline without question.See also: fault

to a fault

Excessively, extremely, as in He was generous to a fault. This phrase, always qualifying an adjective, has been so used since the mid-1700s. Indeed, Oliver Goldsmith had this precise usage in The Life of Richard Nash (1762). See also: fault

to a fault

COMMON If someone has a good quality to a fault, they have more of this quality than is usual or necessary. She was generous to a fault and tried to see that we had everything we needed. He's honest to a fault, brave, dedicated, and fiercely proud of the New York Police Department.See also: fault

— to a fault

(of someone or something displaying a particular commendable quality) to an extent verging on excess. 1995 Bill Bryson Notes from a Small Island Anyway, that's the kind of place Bournemouth is—genteel to a fault and proud of it. See also: fault

to a ˈfault

(written) used to say that somebody has a lot, or even too much of a particular good quality: He was generous to a fault.See also: fault

to a fault

To an excessive degree: generous to a fault.See also: fault

to a fault

Excessively so. This locution, which is always applied to a quality that is inherently good but may not be so in excess—for example, “generous to a fault”—dates from the nineteenth century. The fault in question, of course, is that of excess. Robert Browning used it in The Ring and the Book (1868), “Faultless to a fault”—that is, too perfect. A similar phrase is to a fare-the-well, but it implies perfection and not necessarily excess. For example, “The table was decorated to a fare-the-well; nothing was lacking.” See also too much of a good thing.See also: fault

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Synonyms for to a fault

adv to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits

Synonyms