Etimology
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)
(intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
(transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
(transitive) To neglect.
(intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
(transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
(transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
(transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
(transitive, obsolete) 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.
(archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
(archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
(archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
(obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
(obsolete) 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.
Examples
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.
I've failed my parents many times growing up.
There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
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 […]
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.
I failed English last year.
The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
The crops failed last year.
as the waters fail from the sea
Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.
When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
A sick man fails.
had the king in his last sickness failed
Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
Related words
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
related terms
default
fallacy
false
fault
noun
fail (countable and uncountable, plural fails)
A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
A failing grade in an academic examination.
(slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success).
(uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
Examples
The project was full of fail.
adjective
fail (comparative more fail, superlative most fail)
(slang, US) Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way.
Etimology
Unknown. Compare Scottish Gaelic fàl (“hedge”), Scots faill (“turf”). Attested from the 16th century.
noun
fail (plural fails)
A piece of turf cut from grassland.