fail
/feɪl/ verb, noun, adjective, proper noun
Forms fails failing failed failest failedst faileth faile fayle feal
- verb (intransitive) To be unsuccessful. “Throughout my life, I have always failed.”
- verb (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.”
- verb (transitive) To neglect. “The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.”
- verb (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly. “After running five minutes, the engine failed.”
- verb (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations. “I've failed my parents many times growing up.”
- verb (ambitransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits. “I failed English last year.”
- verb (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.”
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
- noun A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
- noun A failing grade in an academic examination.
- noun (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success).
- noun (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship. “The project was full of fail.”
- adjective (slang, US) Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.
- noun A piece of turf cut from grassland.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
miscarry founder come to nought come to nothing crash and burn fall flat fall on one's face go downhill go down the toilet go to pot go to the dogs go up in flames go up in smoke die in the ass everything one touches turns to shit go to hell go to shit flunk go bomb neglect go wrong betray go bad give way die give out conk out break break down
Antonyms
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 *(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”).
Unknown. Compare Scottish Gaelic fàl (“hedge”), Scots faill (“turf”). Attested from the 16th century.
* As a Scottish and Irish surname, shortened from McPhail.
* As a Manx surname, variant of Fayle.
* As a south German surname, from the adjective feil (“for sale”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.
- verb To miss of attaining; to lose. [R.]
- noun Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; --mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail. "His highness' fail of issue." Shak.
- noun Death; decease. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [OF. faille, from failir. See Fail, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fail”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details