fail

Plural: fails

Verb

Verb Forms: failed, failing, fails

• To be unsuccessful in achieving an objective or expectation.
• 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"
• be unsuccessful
  • "Where do today's public schools fail?"
  • "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"
• 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"
• stop operating or functioning
  • "The engine failed on the way to town"
• be unable
  • "I fail to understand your motives"
• judge unacceptable
  • "The teacher failed six students"
• fail to get a passing grade
  • "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"
  • "Did I fail the test?"
• 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"
• become bankrupt or insolvent; fail financially and close
  • "A number of banks failed that year"
• prove insufficient
  • "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought"
• get worse
• To be unsuccessful.
• Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
• To neglect.
• Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
• To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
• To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
• To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
• To miss attaining; to lose.
• To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
• To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
• To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
• To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
• To perish; to die; used of a person.
• To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
• 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

• A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
• A failing grade in an academic examination.
• A failure (something incapable of success).
• Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
• A piece of turf cut from grassland.

Adj

• Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.

Examples

• A sick man fails.
• After running five minutes, the engine failed.
• I failed English last year.
• I've failed my parents many times growing up.
• The crops failed last year.
• The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
• The project was full of fail.
• The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
• The truck failed to start.
• Throughout my life, I have always failed.
• To FAIL to utilize a double-word score when available is a common Scrabble regret.

Synonyms

betray, bomb, break, break down, conk out, die, flunk, flush it, give out, give way, go, go bad, go wrong, miscarry, neglect, run out, bust, come to nothing, come to nought, conk, crash and burn, die in the ass, everything one touches turns to shit, fall flat, fall on one's face, go down the toilet, go downhill, go to hell, go to pot, go to shit, go to the dogs, go up in flames, go up in smoke, tank

Antonyms

manage, pass, succeed

Related Words

default, fallacy, false, fault

Anagrams of fail