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5 dictionary results for: Failing

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

fail·ing

[fey-ling] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	an act or instance of failing; failure: His failing is due to general incompetence.

2.	a defect or fault; shortcoming; weakness: His lack of knowledge is a grave failing.

–preposition

3.	in the absence or default of: Failing payment, we shall sue.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME; see fail, -ing¹

]

—Related forms

fail·ing·ly, adverb

fail·ing·ness, noun

—Synonyms 2. See fault.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fail   (fāl) Pronunciation Key
v.   failed, fail·ing, fails

v.   intr.

To prove deficient or lacking; perform ineffectively or inadequately: failed to fulfill their promises; failed in their attempt to reach the summit.
To be unsuccessful: an experiment that failed.
To receive an academic grade below the acceptable minimum.
To prove insufficient in quantity or duration; give out: The water supply failed during the drought.
To decline, as in strength or effectiveness: The light began to fail.
To cease functioning properly: The engine failed.
To give way or be made otherwise useless as a result of excessive strain: The rusted girders failed and caused the bridge to collapse.
To become bankrupt or insolvent: Their business failed during the last recession.

v. tr.

To disappoint or prove undependable to: Our sentries failed us.
To abandon; forsake: His strength failed him.
To omit to perform (an expected duty, for example): "We must . . . hold . . . those horrors up to the light of justice. Otherwise we would fail our inescapable obligation to the victims of Nazism: to remember" (Anthony Lewis).
To leave undone; neglect: failed to wash the dishes.
1. To receive an academic grade below the acceptable minimum in (a course, for example): failed algebra twice.
2. To give such a grade of failure to (a student): failed me in algebra.

Failure to deliver securities to a purchaser within a specified time.
Failure to receive the proceeds of a transaction, as in the sale of stock or securities, by a specified date.

[Middle English failen, from Old French faillir, from Vulgar Latin *fallīre, variant of Latin fallere, to deceive.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fail·ing (fā'lĭng) Pronunciation Key
n.

The act of a person or thing that fails; a failure.
A minor fault.

adj. Undergoing failure: failing health; failing kidneys; a failing business.

prep. In the absence of; without: Failing new evidence, the case will surely be lost.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

failing
adjective
1.	below acceptable in performance; "received failing grades"
noun
1.	a flaw or weak point; "he was quick to point out his wife's failings"
2.	failure to reach a minimum required performance; "his failing the course led to his disqualification"; "he got two flunks on his report" [ant: at length]