fail

English

Alternative forms

• faile (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: fāl, IPA^(key): /feɪl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

From Middle English failen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman faillir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *sgʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”).

Compare Dutch feilen, falen (“to fail, miss”), German fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fela (“to fail, be wanting, do wrong”), Icelandic feila (“to fail”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).

Verb

fail (third-person singular simple present fails, present participle failing, simple past and past participle failed)

1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.

   Throughout my life, I have always failed.

   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Englande”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande , volume I, London: for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 249, column 1:

     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.

   • 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     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.

2. (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.

3. (transitive) To neglect.

   The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.

   • 1960 December, B. Perren, “The role of the Great Central—present and future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 765:

     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.

4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.

   After running five minutes, the engine failed.

   • 2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33:

     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.

5. (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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 1 Kings 2:4:

     There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.

   • 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, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

     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 […]

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

6. (transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.

   I failed English last year.

7. (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.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC:

     though that seat of earthly bliss be failed

9. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.

   The crops failed last year.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Job 14:11:

     as the waters fail from the sea

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.

10. (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
    • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful:

      If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.

11. (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

      When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.

12. (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.

    A sick man fails.

13. (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
    • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      had the king in his last sickness failed

14. (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

      Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.

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.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Conjugation

Alternative forms

• faile (obsolete)
• fayle (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (to be unsuccessful): 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 (not vulgar); die in the ass, everything one touches turns to shit, go to hell, go to shit (vulgar)
• (to receive non-passing grades in academic pursuits): flunk (US)
• (to become deficient): bomb, bust, conk, tank

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "to be unsuccessful"): succeed

Derived terms

Related terms

• default
• fallacy
• false
• fault

Descendants

• → Welsh: ffaelu

Translations

Noun

fail (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.

   The project was full of fail.

Derived terms

Adjective

fail (comparative more fail, superlative most fail)

1. (slang, US) Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Compare Scottish Gaelic fàl (“hedge”), Scots faill (“turf”). Attested from the 16th century.

Alternative forms

• feal

Noun

fail (plural fails)

1. A piece of turf cut from grassland.

Derived terms

• fail and divot

References

• “fail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “fail”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “fail”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• -afil, alif, fila

Indonesian

Etymology

From English file, from Old French fil (“thread”), from Latin filum (“thread”). Compare to Malay fail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: fa‧il

Noun

fail

1. file,
   1. a collection of papers collated and archived together.

      Synonyms: berkas, dokumen

   2. (computing) an aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.
2. file rack

   Synonym: rak berkas

Further reading

• “fail” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish foil, from Proto-Celtic *wali-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel-. Cognates include Ancient Greek ἕλιξ (hélix, “something twisted”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fˠalʲ/

Noun

fail f (genitive singular faile, nominative plural faileanna)

1. ring
2. bracelet
3. wreath
4. sty

Declension

Mutation

Malay

Etymology

From English file.

Noun

fail (plural fail-fail)

1. file (collection of papers)
2. information or a document about someone, something etc.
3. (computing) file (aggregation of data on a storage device)

Derived terms

• pemfailan (the process of filing)
• berfail-fail (a lot of files)

Verb

fail (used in the form memfailkan)

1. file (commit papers)
2. file (to archive)
3. (computing) file (store computer data)
4. (with untuk) file (make a formal request)

Old Irish

Verb

fail

1. Alternative form of fil

Turkish

Etymology

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish فاعل (fā'il), from Arabic فَاعِل (fāʕil), active participle of فَعَلَ (faʕala, “to do, to affect”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faːˈil/
• Hyphenation: fa‧il

Noun

fail (definite accusative faili, plural failler)

1. (grammar, archaic) subject

   Synonym: özne

2. (archaic) agent, doer
3. (law) actor, perpetrator

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

References

Further reading

• “fail”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “fail”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 2, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 1540
• Avery, Robert et al., editors (2013), The Redhouse Dictionary Turkish/Ottoman English, 21st edition, Istanbul: Sev Yayıncılık, →ISBN