• Fail

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /feɪl/
    • Rhymes: -eɪl

    Origin

    From Middle English failen, from Anglo-Norman faillir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere ("to deceive, disappoint"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- ("to lie, deceive"). Compare Dutch feilen, falen ("to fail, miss"), German fehlen ("to fail, miss, lack"), Danish feile ("to fail, err"), Swedish fela ("to fail, be wanting, do wrong"), Icelandic feila ("to fail").

    Full definition of fail

    Verb

    1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
      • 2013-08-10, A new prescription, As the world’s drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.
    2. Throughout my life, I have always failed.
    3. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
      The truck failed to start.
    4. (transitive) To neglect.
      The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
    5. (intransitive, of a machine, etc.) To cease to operate correctly.
      After running five minutes, the engine failed.
    6. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
      • Bible, 1 Kings ii. 4There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
      • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, , book 3, ch. II, Gospel of MammonismA poor Irish Widow … went forth with her three children, bare of all resource, to solicit help from the Charitable Establishments of that City. At this Charitable Establishment and then at that she was refused; referred from one to the other, helped by none; — till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her: she sank down in typhus-fever …
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 2, That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.
    7. (intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
      I failed in English last year.
    8. (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
      The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
    9. (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
      • Miltonthough that seat of earthly bliss be failed
    10. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.The crops failed last year.
      • Bible, Job xiv. 11as the waters fail from the sea
      • ShakespeareTill Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
    11. (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
      • BerkeIf ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to their size.
    12. (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
      • MiltonWhen earnestly they seek
        Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
    13. (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.A sick man fails.
    14. (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
      • Shakespearehad the king in his last sickness failed
    15. (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
      • MiltonWhich ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps
        Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
    16. To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.

    Usage notes

    This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive. See

    Synonyms

    Antonyms

    Derived terms

    Noun

    fail

    (plural fails)
    1. (slang) A failure (condition of being unsuccessful)
    2. (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success)
    3. A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
    4. A failing grade in an academic examination.

    Adjective

    fail

    1. (slang, US) That is a failure.

    Anagrams

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