fail (v.)

  1. 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

    [ Syn: neglect ]

  2. prove insufficient; The water supply for the town failed after a long drought

    [ Syn: run out , give out ]

  3. get worse; Her health is declining'

  4. be unsuccessful; Where do todays public schools fail?; The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably

    [ Syn: go wrong , miscarry ]

  5. 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

    [ Syn: betray ]

  6. 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

    [ Syn: go bad , give way , die , give out , conk out , go , break , break down ]

  7. be unable; I fail to understand your motives'

  8. judge unacceptable; The teacher failed six students'

  9. fail to get a passing grade; She studied hard but failed nevertheless; Did I fail the test?

    [ Syn: flunk , bomb , flush it ]

  10. 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'

  11. 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'

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.