Failed

Examples

• Sometimes their feet failed them, and they sank together in a heap; they were then propped up with the monitors' high stools. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
• Nay, he appeared so much otherwise, that his daughter's courage failed. Jane Austen. Emma.
• Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, had already failed to subscribe a prompt belief in that pain about the heart. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• As the idea of citizenship failed and faded before the new occasions, there remained no inner, that is to say no real, unity in the system at all. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• He succeeded, where Taft failed, in preventing that drought of invention which officialism brings. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
• The crusade saved the principality of Antioch for a time, but failed to retake Jerusalem. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• His ambition was to restore the empire of Jengis Khan as he conceived it, a project in which he completely failed. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• The crusaders beleaguered Prague, but failed to take it, and they experienced a series of reverses that ended in their retreat from Bohemia. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• They seemed to think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the conversation at me, every now and then, and stick the point into me. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
• His attempt had utterly failed. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
• He flattered himself that it was opportunity, not audacity, which had failed him. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• What sort of a woman she was, and how she came to be out alone in the high-road, an hour after midnight, I altogether failed to guess. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• It failed after some preliminary successes and another great slaughtering of Russians. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• No creature came near her, as her strength failed. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
• But the power of expression failed her suddenly; she felt a tremor in her throat, and two tears gathered and fell slowly from her eyes. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
• In brief, the commission failed to see that the working conscience of America is to-day bound up with the very evil it is supposed to eradicate by a relentless warfare. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
• I had been so confident of regaining the treaty at once that I had not dared to think of what would be the consequence if I failed to do so. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
• Like himself they had failed to grasp the necessity of entrusting the work of settlement to more specially qualified men. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• He had schemed, if he failed in his present attempt, without taking leave of any of us, to embark for Greece, and never again to revisit England. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
• The hopelessness and the imprudence of this proceeding failed to strike me before I had actually written the opening lines of the letter. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• You had come across it like a beam of sunshine at first--and then you too failed me. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
• It missed its mark, and completely failed, as is often the way with his tribe too. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
• But, somehow, it had all failed. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
• Warren led the last assault, one division at a time, and of course it failed. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
• But even this encouragement failed, for he would go; and Lucy, who would have outstaid him, had his visit lasted two hours, soon afterwards went away. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
• His last words had left a bad, harsh impression; he, at least, had failed in the disposing of a chance he was lord of. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• Strange that grief should now almost choke me, because another human being's eye has failed to greet mine. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• I got as far as the schoolroom door; there my courage failed. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• For Airy this was a crucial question; but to Adams it seemed unessential, and he failed to reply. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
• When he had 'worked round,' as he called it, to Paris in his pilgrimage, and had wholly failed in it so far, he was not disheartened. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.

Typist: Moira