fail definition | Dictionary.com

fail

[feyl]

–verb (used without object)

1.	to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved: The experiment failed because of poor planning.

2.	to receive less than the passing grade or mark in an examination, class, or course of study: He failed in history.

3.	to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient or absent; fall short: Our supplies failed.

4.	to dwindle, pass, or die away: The flowers failed for lack of rain.

5.	to lose strength or vigor; become weak: His health failed after the operation.

6.	to become unable to meet or pay debts or business obligations; become insolvent or bankrupt.

7.	(of a building member, structure, machine part, etc.) to break, bend, crush, or be otherwise destroyed or made useless because of an excessive load.

8.	to stop functioning or operating: The electricity failed during the storm.

–verb (used with object)

9.	to be unsuccessful in the performance or completion of: He failed to do his duty.

10.	(of some expected or usual resource) to prove of no use or help to: His friends failed him. Words failed her.

11.	to receive less than a passing grade or mark in: He failed history.

12.	to declare (a person) unsuccessful in a test, course of study, etc.; give less than a passing grade to: The professor failed him in history.

–noun

13.

Stock Exchange.

a.	a stockbroker's inability to deliver or receive security within the required time after sale or purchase.

b.	such an undelivered security.

14.	Obsolete. failure as to performance, occurrence, etc.

—Idiom

15.	without fail, with certainty; positively: I will visit you tomorrow without fail.

Origin:
1175–1225; ME failen < AF, OF faillir < VL *fallīre, for L fallere to disappoint, deceive

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To fail

fail (fāl)

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.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.

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.

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. "His highness' fail of issue." --Shak.

2. Death; decease. [Obs.] --Shak.

Language Translation for : fail

Spanish: fracasar,

German: versagen, versäumen,

Japanese: 失敗する

More Translations »

fail

c.1225, from O.Fr. faillir "be lacking, miss, not succeed," from V.L. *fallire, from L. fallere "deceive, be lacking or defective." Replaced O.E. abreoðan. The Anglo-Norm. form, failer, came to be used as a noun, hence failure (1643). Fail-safe dates from 1948.

Fail

A transaction that has not been settled before a deadline.

Investopedia Commentary

Presently, firms have three days after the date of a trade to settle stock transactions. Within this timeframe, securities and cash must be delivered to the clearing house for settlement. If firms are unable to meet this deadline a fail will occur.

Settlement requirements for stock, options, futures contracts, forwards, and fixed-income securities differ.

fail

Of or relating to a trade in which the seller does not deliver securities or the buyer does not deliver funds in the prescribed manner at the prescribed time, usually on the settlement date. Compare clear.

Main Entry: fail
Function: intransitive verb
1 : to be or become inadequate or unsuccessful esp. in fulfilling certain formal requirements fail for indefiniteness —Uniform Commercial Code>
2 : to become bankrupt or insolvent transitive verb : to leave undone or neglect to do <fail to appear in court> <fail to read a contract>

Main Entry: fail
Pronunciation: 'fA(&)l
Function: intransitive verb
1 : to weaken or lose strength failing>
2 : to stop functioning failed>

fail

see without fail; words fail me.

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