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“fail”
fail (verb), fails; failed; failing
1. To be unsuccessful in trying to do something: Marvin found out that he had failed to pass his math exam.
2. To be incapable of doing something or unwilling to do it: At least one student in class failed to understand the last question on the examination.
3. To fall short of the standard required to pass an examination, course, or piece of academic work: Shirley failed her Spanish exam because she didn't study the necessary assignments.
4. To judge that someone is not good enough to pass an examination, course, or piece of academic work: Mr. Smith had to tell three students that they had failed the science examination.
5. To stop working or not performing or growing as expected: The brakes on the car failed when Mary tried to stop her car before going through a red light.
6. To collapse financially or becoming insolvent or bankrupt: Janet's small business failed because new trade agreements did not allow her to import popular products.
7. To abandon, to forsake, or to let someone down by not doing what is expected or needed: June's neighbor failed her sister by being too late for their appointment.
8. To lose strength, loudness, or brightness: The light started to fail just when Alisa needed it.
9. Etymology: from Old French falir, Modern French faillir, "be lacking, miss, not succeed"; from Common or Vulgar Latin fallire; from Latin fallere, "to trip, to cause to fall"; figuratively, "to deceive, to trick, to dupe, to cheat, to elude"; fail, "be lacking" or "being defective".
2. To be incapable of doing something or unwilling to do it: At least one student in class failed to understand the last question on the examination.
3. To fall short of the standard required to pass an examination, course, or piece of academic work: Shirley failed her Spanish exam because she didn't study the necessary assignments.
4. To judge that someone is not good enough to pass an examination, course, or piece of academic work: Mr. Smith had to tell three students that they had failed the science examination.
5. To stop working or not performing or growing as expected: The brakes on the car failed when Mary tried to stop her car before going through a red light.
6. To collapse financially or becoming insolvent or bankrupt: Janet's small business failed because new trade agreements did not allow her to import popular products.
7. To abandon, to forsake, or to let someone down by not doing what is expected or needed: June's neighbor failed her sister by being too late for their appointment.
8. To lose strength, loudness, or brightness: The light started to fail just when Alisa needed it.
9. Etymology: from Old French falir, Modern French faillir, "be lacking, miss, not succeed"; from Common or Vulgar Latin fallire; from Latin fallere, "to trip, to cause to fall"; figuratively, "to deceive, to trick, to dupe, to cheat, to elude"; fail, "be lacking" or "being defective".
This entry is located in the following unit:
fals-, fall-
(page 1)
fail; flail
fail (FAYL) (verb)
1. To prove deficient or lacking; to perform ineffectively or inadequately: The business is expected to fail to fulfill its promises.
2. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness: The lights in the room seemed to fail as a result of the electric storm which caused the generators to stop working.
2. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness: The lights in the room seemed to fail as a result of the electric storm which caused the generators to stop working.
flail (FLAYL) (verb)
1. To beat or to strike with or as if with a stick; that is, to whack with a manual threshing device consisting of a long wooden handle and a shorter, free swinging stick attached to its end: The tourists could see some people on the farm flail the grain to get the seeds out of the husks.
2. To move vigorously or erratically; to thrash about: Because James was afraid of drowning, he started to flail his arms helplessly in the swimming pool.
2. To move vigorously or erratically; to thrash about: Because James was afraid of drowning, he started to flail his arms helplessly in the swimming pool.
Apparently, the farmer was about to fail to flail his wheat before the weather became too rainy.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group F; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 1)
A unit related to:
“fail”
(Greek, elleipsis, elleipo, elleipein; Latin, ellipsis: abandon, to leave [behind]; fail; lack, lacking; be wanting)
(of uncertain origin: to spoil; to bungle, to cause something to fail through carelessness or incompetence)
(failure in life takes place when we live and fail to learn; what we don't know, we can learn)
Word Entries containing the term:
“fail”
fail-safe (adjective), more fail-safe, most fail-safe
Making certain that something will be successful: Brian was looking for fail-safe tools for his project; of course, he realized that no system is entirely fail-safe.
This entry is located in the following unit:
fals-, fall-
(page 1)