fail
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: fāl
ipa: /feɪl/
rhymes: -eɪl
Forms: form: fails
form: failing
form: failed
form: failed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: fail
form: fail
form: failed
form: fail
form: failest
form: failed
form: failedst
form: fails
form: faileth
form: failed
form: fail
form: failed
form: fail
form: failed
form: fail
form: -
form: failing
form: failed
form: faile
form: fayle
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English failen, borrowed from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *sgʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”).
Compare Alemannic German fääle (“to lack”), Cimbrian béelan, véelan (“to fail”), veln (“to be absent, missing”), Dutch falen, feilen (“to fail, miss”), German fallieren, fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fallera (“to fail, break, malfunction”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).
Senses: examples: text: Throughout my life, I have always failed.
text: If they ſhoulde gyue battayle it was to be doubted, leaſt through treaſon amõgſt themſelues, the armie ſhould be betrayed into the enimies hands, the which would not fayle to execute all kinde of crueltie in the ſlaughter of the whole nation.
ref: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Englande”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 249, column 1:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
glosses: To be unsuccessful.
examples: text: The truck failed to start.
glosses: Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
examples: text: The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
text: Those who have advocated the closure of the G.C. have so far failed to say by which alternative route this North-to-West traffic could be carried.
ref: 1960 December, B. Perren, “The role of the Great Central—present and future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 765:
glosses: To neglect.
examples: text: After running five minutes, the engine failed.
text: We also found that the only emergency egress from the tram was by smashing the front or rear windscreens, and that emergency lighting had failed when the tram overturned.
ref: 2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33:
glosses: Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
examples: text: I've failed my parents many times growing up.
text: There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 2:4:
text: A 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 […]
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. II, Gospel of Mammonism”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
examples: text: I failed English last year.
glosses: To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
examples: text: The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
glosses: To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
examples: text: though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
glosses: To miss attaining; to lose.
examples: text: The crops failed last year.
text: as the waters fail from the sea
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 14:11:
text: Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
glosses: To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
examples: text: If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.
ref: 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful:
glosses: To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
examples: text: When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
examples: text: A sick man fails.
glosses: To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
examples: text: had the king in his last sickness failed
ref: 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
glosses: To perish; to die; used of a person.
examples: text: Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
glosses: 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.
Synonyms: sense: to be unsuccessful
word: miscarry
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: come to nought
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: come to nothing
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: crash and burn
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: fall flat
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: fall on one's face
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go downhill
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go down the toilet
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go to pot
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go to the dogs
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go up in flames
sense: to be unsuccessful
english: not vulgar
translation: not vulgar
word: go up in smoke
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: die in the ass
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: everything one touches turns to shit
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go to hell
sense: to be unsuccessful
word: go to shit
sense: to receive non-passing grades in academic pursuits
word: flunk
sense: to become deficient
word: go
sense: to become deficient
word: bomb
sense: to become deficient
word: bust
sense: to become deficient
word: conk
sense: to become deficient
word: tank
Derived terms: failable
fail at life
failback
fail closed
fail-deadly
failer
fail fast
failgirl
failing that
fail of
fail open
fail out
failover
fail over
failproof
fail-safe
fail safe
failsoft
fail up
fail up the ladder
fail upward
fail upwards
failure
failure to prepare is preparing to fail
female-fail
god that failed
male-fail
no-fail
pass-fail
task failed successfully
too big to fail
unfail
unfailable
words fail someone
Related terms: default
fallacy
false
fault