find fault

present singular third person finds fault · participle present finding fault · participle past found fault · past found fault

1. idiomaticintransitiveoftenTo criticize something excessively.

   No matter what I do, he always finds fault.

   3 more examples

   My supervisor always finds fault with my work.

   I tell you this because the latter used to find fault with me in regard to you. Well, he has found by personal experience that he is not so easy to pacify, and that on my part no zeal has been lacking either on his or your behalf.

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 11

   When one has an intimate knowledge of a business it is easy—and to some extent self-satisfying—to find fault with the way it is run by those in charge.

   1959 November, “Talking of Trains: The anti-railway prejudice”, in Trains Illustrated, page 518

   Synonyms: quarrel