Definition of "fail"

fail¹

/feɪl/

verb
third-person singular simple present fails, present participle failing, simple past and past participle failed
1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, page 249, column 1
  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.
  2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
2. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
3. (transitive) To neglect.
  Quotations
  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.
  1960 December, B. Perren, “The role of the Great Central—present and future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 765
4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
  Quotations
  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.
  2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33
5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
  Quotations
  There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Kings 2:4
  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 […]
  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, book III (The Modern Worker)
  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.
  1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎
6. (transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
7. (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
8. (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
  Quotations
  though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
  1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […]
9. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
  Quotations
  as the waters fail from the sea
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Job 14:11
  Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
  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, [Act II, scene ii]
10. (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
  Quotations
  If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.
  1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
11. (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
  Quotations
  When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
12. (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
13. (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
  Quotations
  had the king in his last sickness failed
  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, [Act I, scene ii]
14. (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
  Quotations
  Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
15. 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.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural fails
1. A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
2. A failing grade in an academic examination.
3. (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success).
4. (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
adjective
comparative more fail, superlative most fail
1. (slang, US) Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.

fail²

/feɪl/

noun
plural fails
1. A piece of turf cut from grassland.

Definition of "fail"

fail1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

adjective

fail2

noun

fail¹

fail²