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failing - 5 dictionary results
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fail⋅ing

  [fey-ling]
Use failing in a Sentence
–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, -ing 1

Related forms:
fail⋅ing⋅ly, adverb
fail⋅ing⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
2. See fault.

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.
Cite This Source Link To failing
fail   (fāl)   
v.   failed, fail·ing, fails

v.   intr.
  1. To prove deficient or lacking; perform ineffectively or inadequately: failed to fulfill their promises; failed in their attempt to reach the summit.
  2. To be unsuccessful: an experiment that failed.
  3. To receive an academic grade below the acceptable minimum.
  4. To prove insufficient in quantity or duration; give out: The water supply failed during the drought.
  5. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness: The light began to fail.
  6. To cease functioning properly: The engine failed.
  7. To give way or be made otherwise useless as a result of excessive strain: The rusted girders failed and caused the bridge to collapse.
  8. To become bankrupt or insolvent: Their business failed during the last recession.
v.   tr.
  1. To disappoint or prove undependable to: Our sentries failed us.
  2. To abandon; forsake: His strength failed him.
  3. 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).
  4. 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.
n.  
  1. Failure to deliver securities to a purchaser within a specified time.
  2. 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.]
fail·ing   (fā'lĭng)   
n.  
  1. The act of a person or thing that fails; a failure.
  2. 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.
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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Failing

Fail"ing\, n. 1. A failing short; a becoming deficient; failure; deficiency; imperfection; weakness; lapse; fault; infirmity; as, a mental failing.

And ever in her mind she cas about For that unnoticed failing in herself. --Tennyson.

2. The act of becoming insolvent of bankrupt.

Syn: See Fault.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : failing
Spanish: defecto, fallo, punto débil,
German: der Fehler,
Japanese: 弱点
More Translations »
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