Fail

[feɪl] or [fel]

Definition

(verb.) get worse; 'Her health is declining'.

(verb.) stop operating or functioning; 'The engine finally went'; 'The car died on the road'; 'The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town'; 'The coffee maker broke'; 'The engine failed on the way to town'; 'her eyesight went after the accident'.

(verb.) prove insufficient; 'The water supply for the town failed after a long drought'.

(verb.) disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake; 'His sense of smell failed him this time'; 'His strength finally failed him'; 'His children failed him in the crisis'.

(verb.) become bankrupt or insolvent; fail financially and close; 'The toy company went bankrupt after the competition hired cheap Mexican labor'; 'A number of banks failed that year'.

(verb.) fail to get a passing grade; 'She studied hard but failed nevertheless'; 'Did I fail the test?'.

(verb.) judge unacceptable; 'The teacher failed six students'.

(verb.) be unsuccessful; 'Where do today's public schools fail?'; 'The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably'.

(verb.) fail to do something; leave something undone; 'She failed to notice that her child was no longer in his crib'; 'The secretary failed to call the customer and the company lost the account'.

(verb.) be unable; 'I fail to understand your motives'.

(verb.) fall short in what is expected; 'She failed in her obligations as a good daughter-in-law'; 'We must not fail his obligation to the victims of the Holocaust'.

Typist: Vance--From WordNet

Definition

(v. i.) To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops fail.

(v. i.) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of.

(v. i.) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.

(v. i.) To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails.

(v. i.) To perish; to die; -- used of a person.

(v. i.) To be found wanting with respect to an action or a duty to be performed, a result to be secured, etc.; to miss; not to fulfill expectation.

(v. i.) To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be baffled or frusrated.

(v. i.) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.

(v. i.) 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.

(v. t.) To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.

(v. t.) To miss of attaining; to lose.

(v. i.) Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail.

(v. i.) Death; decease.

Edited by Erna

Synonyms and Synonymous

v. n. [1]. Fall short, come short, be insufficient, be deficient, be wanting.[2]. Decline, sink, decay, wane, fade, give out.[3]. Cease, disappear, become extinct, be wanting.[4]. Miss, miscarry, be unsuccessful, be frustrated, end in smoke, come to nothing, fall still-born, flash in the pan, miss fire, miss stays, fall to the ground.[5]. Omit, neglect.[6]. Break, become insolvent, become bankrupt, suspend payment.

v. a. Disappoint, be wanting to, not be sufficient for, not answer the expectation of.

n. [Used only in the expression without fail.] Omission, neglect, failure, delinquency.

Edited by Ian

Synonyms and Antonyms

[See ALLAY]

SYN:Fall, miss, miscarry, fall_short, trip, lose

ANT:Succeed, exceed, surpass, excel, achieve, abound, yield

Typist: Silvia

Definition

n. a turf sod.—n. Fail′-dike (Scot.) a turf-wall.

v.i. to fall short or be wanting (with in): to fall away: to decay: to die: to prove deficient under trial examination pressure &c.: to miss: to be disappointed or baffled: to be unable to pay one's debts.—v.t. to be wanting to: not to be sufficient for: to leave undone omit: to disappoint or desert any one:—pr.p. fail′ing; pa.p. failed.—n. (Shak.) failure.—p.adj. Failed decayed worn out: bankrupt.—n. Fail′ing a fault weakness: a foible.—prep. in default of.—n. Fail′ure a falling short or cessation: omission: decay: bankruptcy.—Fail of to come short of accomplishing any purpose; Without fail infallibly.

Checker: Mandy