fail-safe (n.)

  1. a mechanism capable of returning to a safe state in case there is a failure or malfunction

    fail-safe (adj.)

  1. guaranteed not to fail; a fail-safe recipe for cheese souffle'

  2. eliminating danger by compensating automatically for a failure or malfunction; a fail-safe device in a nuclear weapon to deactivate it automatically in the event of accident'

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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