Definition of fail Fail
/fejˈl/ - [feyl] - fail
We found 39 definitions of fail from 6 different sources.
Advertising
What does fail mean?
WordNet
Verb |
||
| fail - be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably" | ||
| go wrong, miscarry | ||
| deliver the goods, bring home the bacon, succeed, come through, win be the successor (of); "Carter followed Ford"; "Will Charles succeed to the throne?" | ||
| take it on the chin undergo failure or defeat | ||
| miss fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane" | ||
| overreach fail by aiming too high or trying too hard | ||
| ball up, louse up, fuck up, foul up, flub, botch up, botch, bollocks up, bollocks, bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bungle, muff, mishandle, muck up, fluff, bumble, mess up, screw up, fumble, spoil, blow make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement" | ||
| strike out set out on a course of action; "He struck out on his own" | ||
| fall pass suddenly and passively into a state of body or mind; "fall into a trap"; "She fell ill"; "They fell out of favor"; "Fall in love"; "fall asleep"; "fall prey to an imposter"; "fall into a strange way of thinking"; "she fell to pieces after she lost her work" | ||
| shipwreck destroy a ship; "The vessel was shipwrecked" | ||
| fall flat, fall through, flop, founder fail utterly; collapse; "The project foundered" | ||
| fail - 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" | ||
| go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down | ||
| buy the farm, perish, kick the bucket, give-up the ghost, snuff it, drop dead, decease, cash in one's chips, pop off, pass away, expire, exit, croak, conk, die, choke, pass, go leave quickly | ||
| break weaken or destroy in spirit or body; "His resistance was broken"; "a man broken by the terrible experience of near-death" | ||
| change undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night" | ||
| go down, crash be defeated; "If America goes down, the free world will go down, too" | ||
| burn out, blow out, blow melt, break, or become otherwise unusable; "The lightbulbs blew out"; "The fuse blew" | ||
| misfire fail to fire or detonate; "The guns misfired" | ||
| malfunction, misfunction fail to function or function improperly; "the coffee maker malfunctioned" | ||
| fail - 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" | ||
| neglect | ||
| lose track fail to keep informed or aware; "She has so many books, she just lost track and cannot find this volume" | ||
| strike out set out on a course of action; "He struck out on his own" | ||
| default, default on fail to pay up | ||
| choke breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion; "She choked with emotion when she spoke about her deceased husband" | ||
| muff fail to catch, as of a ball | ||
| miss fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane" | ||
| fail - fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?" | ||
| flunk, bomb, flush it | ||
| make it, pass travel past; "The sports car passed all the trucks" | ||
| fail get worse; "Her health is declining" | ||
| fail get worse; "Her health is declining" | ||
| fail - judge unacceptable; "The teacher failed six students" | ||
| flunk, flush it, bomb, fail get worse; "Her health is declining" | ||
| pass travel past; "The sports car passed all the trucks" | ||
| pass judgment, evaluate, judge form a critical opinion of; "I cannot judge some works of modern art"; "How do you evaluate this grant proposal?" "We shouldn't pass judgment on other people" | ||
| fail - 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" | ||
| flunk, flush it, bomb, fail get worse; "Her health is declining" | ||
| fail - get worse; "Her health is declining" | ||
| worsen, decline grow worse; "Conditions in the slum worsened" | ||
| fail - 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" | ||
| betray | ||
| disappoint, let down fail to meet the hopes or expectations of; "Her boyfriend let her down when he did not propose marriage" | ||
| fail - 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" | ||
| fail - be unable; "I fail to understand your motives" | ||
| bring off, carry off, pull off, negociate, manage cause to withdraw; "We pulled this firm off the project because they overcharged" | ||
| fail - prove insufficient; "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought" | ||
| run out, give out | ||
= synonym
= antonym
= related word
= antonym
= related word
Wiktionary 
- fail (Noun)
A failure, especially of a financial transaction. - fail (Noun)
A failing grade in an academic examination. - fail (Verb)
To be unsuccessful. - fail (Verb)
Not to achieve a particular stated goal. - fail (Verb)
To neglect. - fail (Verb)
To cease to operate correctly. - fail (Verb)
To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert. - fail (Verb)
To receive one or more non- passing grades in academic pursuits. - fail (Verb)
To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour. - fail (Adjective)
That is a failure.
Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘
- fail (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. - fail (v. i.)
To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of. - fail (v. i.)
To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink. - fail (v. i.)
To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails. - fail (v. i.)
To perish; to die; -- used of a person. - fail (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. - fail (v. i.)
To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be baffled or frusrated. - fail (v. i.)
To err in judgment; to be mistaken. - fail (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. - fail (v. t.)
To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert. - fail (v. t.)
To miss of attaining; to lose. - fail (v. i.)
Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail. - fail (v. i.)
Death; decease.
OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω
-
fail
To not achieve a particular goal. -
fail
A grade given to a student with extremely below average performance.
Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕
-
fail
fāl, n. a turf, sod.—n. Fail′-dike (Scot.), a turf-wall. [Perh. from Gael. fàl, a sod.] -
fail
fāl, 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. [O. Fr. faillir—L. fallĕre, to deceive; cf. Dut. feilen, Ger. fehlen, Ice. feila.]
Part of speech
🔤Pronunciation
Word frequency
Sign Language
Your last searches
Last searches
See also
Advertising
Jump to
Advertising