fail
Part of speech: verb
noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Classical Latin fallere
Vulgar Latin *fallīre
Old French falirbor.
Middle English failen
English fail
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 *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (“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”).
Inflected forms:
form: fails
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: failing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: failest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: failedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: fails
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: faileth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: fail
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: failing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: failed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: faile
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fayle
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fails
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: faile
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fayle
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: more fail
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most fail
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: faile
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fayle
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: To be unsuccessful.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Throughout my life, I have always failed.
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.
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.
gloss: Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The truck failed to start.
gloss: To neglect.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
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.
gloss: Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: After running five minutes, the engine failed.
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.
gloss: To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I've failed my parents many times growing up.
There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
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 […]
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.
I think... I might've... failed Pomni. Just like I failed Jax. Try too hard to get on their good side, and then I just... end up pushing them away! And then they end up hating me!
gloss: To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: I failed English last year.
gloss: To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
gloss: To miss attaining; to lose.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
gloss: To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
pos: verb
examples: The crops failed last year.
as the waters fail from the sea
Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
gloss: To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.
gloss: To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
gloss: To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: A sick man fails.
gloss: To perish; to die; used of a person.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: had the king in his last sickness failed
gloss: To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: "But you cannot tell where she went on leaving here?" Robert asked, despondingly.
"No, sir; missus says she believes the lady failed, and that she left sudden like, and didn't want her address to be known in the neighbourhood."
gloss: A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A failing grade in an academic examination.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A failure (something incapable of success).
pos: noun
tags: US
countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
examples: The project was full of fail.
gloss: Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.
pos: adj
tags: US
slang
Antonyms: succeed
Related words: default
fallacy
false
fault
Derived words: 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
failson
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
epic fail
fail dyke
fail-secure
fail-soft
failtastic
fail whale
foster fail
made of fail
without fail
Translations:
lang: Czech
word: nechat propadnout
lang: Danish
word: dumpe
lang: Dutch
word: buizen
lang: Esperanto
word: malsukcesigi
lang: Finnish
word: vioittaa
lang: Finnish
word: rikkoa
lang: Finnish
word: pysäyttää
lang: French
word: recaler
lang: Hungarian
word: megbuktat
lang: Portuguese
word: reprovar
lang: Romanian
word: strica
lang: Russian
word: прова́ливать
roman: proválivatʹ
lang: Russian
word: провали́ть
roman: provalítʹ
lang: Tagalog
word: biguin
lang: Turkish
word: sınıfta bırakmak