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.
To receive an academic grade below the acceptable minimum in (a course, for example): failed algebra twice.
To give such a grade of failure to (a student): failed me in algebra.
n.
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.]
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 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"
2.
be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably" [ant: bring home the bacon]
3.
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"
4.
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"
5.
be unable; "I fail to understand your motives" [ant: bring off]
6.
judge unacceptable; "The teacher failed six students" [ant: pass]
7.
fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?" [ant: make it]
8.
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"
9.
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"
10.
prove insufficient; "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought"
Main Entry: fail Pronunciation: 'fA(&)l Function: intransitive verb 1: to weaken or lose strength <her health was failing>
2: to stop functioning <the patient's heart failed>
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.
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 <even though one or more
terms are left open a contract for sale does not 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>
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\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.
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