fail : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: fail	by the DICT Development Group
4 results for fail
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
fail v 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" Synonym(s): fail, neglect be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably" Synonym(s): fail, go wrong, miscarry Antonym(s): bring home the bacon, come through, deliver the goods, succeed, win 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" Synonym(s): fail, betray 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" Synonym(s): fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down be unable; "I fail to understand your motives" Antonym(s): bring off, carry off, manage, negociate, pull off judge unacceptable; "The teacher failed six students" Antonym(s): pass fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?" Synonym(s): fail, flunk, bomb, flush it Antonym(s): make it, pass 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; "The toy company went bankrupt after the competition hired cheap Mexican labor"; "A number of banks failed that year" prove insufficient; "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought" Synonym(s): fail, run out, give out get worse; "Her health is declining"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Fail \Fail\, v. t. 1. To be wanting to; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert. There shall not fail thee a man on the throne. --1 Kings ii. 4. 2. To miss of attaining; to lose. [R.] Though that seat of earthly bliss be failed. --Milton.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Fail \Fail\, n. [OF. faille, from failir. See {Fail}, v. i.] 1. Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail. [bd]His highness' fail of issue.[b8] --Shak. 2. Death; decease. [Obs.] --Shak.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Fail \Fail\v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Failed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Failing}.] [F. failir, fr. L. fallere, falsum, to deceive, akin to E. fall. See {Fail}, and cf. {Fallacy}, {False}, {Fault}.] 1. 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. As the waters fail from the sea. --Job xiv. 11. Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign. --Shak. 2. To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of. If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to their size. --Berke. 3. To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink. When earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail. --Milton. 4. To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails. 5. To perish; to die; -- used of a person. [Obs.] Had the king in his last sickness failed. --Shak. 6. 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. Take heed now that ye fail not to do this. --Ezra iv. 22. Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale. --Shak. 7. To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired; to be baffled or frusrated. Our envious foe hath failed. --Milton. 8. To err in judgment; to be mistaken. Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not. --Milton. 9. 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.