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manifestation of disrespect; incivility. Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes Error a fault, and truth discourtesy. Herbert.

To free from blame or the imputation of a fault; to exculpate. I almost fear you think I begged it, but I can disculpate myself. Walpole.

k or open; uncandid; unworthily or meanly artful. So disingenuous as not to confess them [faults]. Pope. -- Dis`in*gen"u*ous*ly, adv. T. Warton. -- Dis`in*gen"u*ous*ness, n. Macaulay.

of rocks or portions of strata from the situation which they originally occupied. Slips, faults, and the like, are dislocations.

inance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. [Obs.] Little faults proceeding on distemper. Shak. Some frenzy distemper had got into his head. Bunyan.

broad; away; lost. His imaginary title of fatherhood is out of doors. Locke. -- To lay (a fault, misfortune, etc.) at one's door, to charge one with a fault; to blame for. -- To lie at one's door, to be imputable or chargeable to. If I have failed, the fault lies wholly at my door. Dryden.

The sudden drop or depression of the strata of rocks on one side of a fault. See Throw, n.

To purge of faults; to make better; to correct; esp., to make corrections in (a literary work); to alter for the better by textual criticism, generally verbal.

Without fault; correctly. [Obs.]

The act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; correction; improvement. "He lies in his sin without repentance or emendation." Jer. Taylor.

"That fair female troop . . . empty of all good." Milton. I shall find you empty of that fault. Shak.

A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or transgression; iniquity; fault. Ps. xix. 12.

To clear from alleged fault or guilt; to prove to be guiltless; to relieve of blame; to acquit. He exculpated himself from being the author of the heroic epistle. Mason. I exculpate him further for his writing against me. Milman.

The act of exculpating from alleged fault or crime; that which exculpates; excuse. These robbers, however, were men who might have made out a strong case in exculpation of themselves. Southey.

. Clearing, or tending to clear, from alleged fault or guilt; excusing. "An exculpatory letter." Johnson.

To free from accusation, or the imputation of fault or blame; to clear from guilt; to release from a charge; to justify by extenuating a fault; to exculpate; to absolve; to acquit. A man's persuasion that a thing is duty, will not excuse him from guilt in practicing it, if really and indeed it be against Gog's law. Abp…

One who offers excuses or pleads in extenuation of the fault of another. Swift.

The act of making satisfaction or atonement for any crime or fault; the extinguishing of guilt by suffering or penalty. His liberality seemed to have something in it of self-abasement and expiation. W. Irving.

thing that shuns publicity, something criminal, shameful, or the like; as, to expose the faults of a neighbor. You only expose the follies of men, without arraigning their vices. Dryden.

lliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; -- opposed to aggravate. But fortune there extenuates the crime. Dryden. Let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality. I. Taylor.