Fail

/feɪl/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive) To be unsuccessful..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
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.
4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
6. (ambitransitive) 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.

Example Sentences

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.

The truck failed to start.

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.

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.

Synonyms for fail

Antonyms for fail

Related Words

Word Forms

• fails
• failing
• failed
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• fail
• failest
• failedst
• faileth
• -
• faile
• fayle
• more fail
• most fail
• feal

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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