Definitions Related words Phrases Mentions Lyrics History Colors (New!) Easter eggs (New!)

Literary notes about faulty (AI summary)

The term "faulty" appears to have been used in literature as a versatile adjective, applied to both tangible objects and abstract ideas. In technical and physical contexts, it describes malfunctioning devices or imperfect constructions—as when Ukers denounces the inefficiency of a coffee-making device ([1]), or when Jules Verne criticizes a navigational maneuver in an underwater tunnel ([2]). Meanwhile, authors extend the term to intellectual and moral realms: Stendhal warns against faulty reasoning in matters of friendship ([3]), Jane Austen contrasts faulty character traits with virtue ([4], [5]), and Aristotle considers actions disgraceful when born of a faulty character ([6]). The word also is employed to critique errors in language and organization, whether in punctuation ([7]), historical legal texts ([8], [9]), or the even-handed arrangement of operations in military strategy ([10], [11]). Thus, across decades and genres—from the technical manuals and philosophical treatises to novels exploring human nature—"faulty" serves to highlight deficiencies, inaccuracies, or moral lapses, anchoring its meaning in both physical imperfection and abstract error.
  1. This report repeated previous findings against the pumping percolator as producing [Pg 715] an inefficient brew and being a very faulty utensil.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  2. It must have been a faulty maneuver because this underwater tunnel was obstructed by such blocks and didn't make for easy navigating.
    — from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne
  3. The friend in need must beware of faulty reasoning—for example, of talking about ingratitude.
    — from On Love by Stendhal
  4. Let your most faulty characters always be on the wrong side, and your virtuous ones on the right.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  5. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment.
    — from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  6. In truth, to be such a man as to do anything disgraceful is the part of a faulty character.
    — from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle
  7. [1] Again faulty punctuation obscures the text.
    — from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius
  8. Imperfections of form, such as want of straightness in the bore, faulty position of the line of sight and the trunnions.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  9. There is nothing so much, nor so grossly, nor so ordinarily faulty, as the laws.
    — from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne
  10. The exclusive use of either of these systems is faulty: the true course is a mean between these extremes.
    — from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini
  11. The campaign of 1793 affords a new instance of the effect of a faulty direction of operations.
    — from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini

More usage examples

Also see: Google, News, Images, Wikipedia, Reddit, BlueSky


Home   Reverse Dictionary / Thesaurus   Datamuse   Word games   Spruce   Feedback   Dark mode   Random word   Help


Color thesaurus

Use OneLook to find colors for words and words for colors

See an example

Literary notes

Use OneLook to learn how words are used by great writers

See an example

Word games

Try our innovative vocabulary games

Play Now

Read the latest OneLook newsletter issue: Threepeat Redux