Definition of fail

"fail" in the verb sense

1. fail, neglect

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. fail, go wrong, miscarry

be unsuccessful

"Where do today's public schools fail?"

"The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"

3. fail, betray

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. fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down

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. fail

be unable

"I fail to understand your motives"

6. fail

judge unacceptable

"The teacher failed six students"

7. fail, flunk, bomb, flush it

fail to get a passing grade

"She studied hard but failed nevertheless"

"Did I fail the test?"

8. fail

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. fail

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. fail, run out, give out

prove insufficient

"The water supply for the town failed after a long drought"

11. fail

get worse

"Her health is declining"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for fail

Now all is done that men can do
And all is done in vain. [ Burns ]

To fail at all is to fail utterly. [ Lowell ]

It is the empiric who never fails. [ Willmott ]

A first failure is often a blessing. [ A. L. Brown ]

Nonsense and noise will oft prevail,
When honor and affection fail. [ Lloyd ]

Have you found your life distasteful?
My life did, and does, smack sweet.
Was your youth of pleasure wasteful?
Mine I saved and hold complete.
Do your joys with age diminish?
When mine fail me, I'll complain.
Must in death your daylight finish?
My sun sets to rise again. [ Browning ]

Screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. [ William Shakespeare, Macbeth ]

Man is not the prince of creatures,
But in reason; fail that, he is worse
Than horse or dog, or beast of wilderness. [ Field ]

In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For a bright manhood, there is no such word
As Fail. [ Edward Bulwer Lytton ]

But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail. [ William Shakespeare ]

A grunting horse and a groaning wife seldom fail. [ Proverb ]

These gems have life in them: their colors speak,
Say what words fail of. [ George Eliot ]

He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts. [ Whately ]

Better to work and fail than to sleep one's life away. [ J. K. Jerome ]

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed. [ Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan ]

Experience converts us to ourselves when books fail us. [ A. B. Alcott ]

There is not a fiercer hell than failure in a great object. [ Keats ]

Surely she wears low heeled shoes, she's apt to fail backwards. [ Proverb ]

What is failure except feebleness?
And what is it to miss one's mark except to aim widely and weakly? [ Ouida ]

When a man repeats a promise again and again, he means to fail you. [ Proverb ]

Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital. [ Daniel Webster ]

Half the failures in life come from pulling one's horse when he is leaping. [ Thomas Hood ]

Better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than fail in assisting the unfortunate. [ Du Cceur ]

I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best. [ Keats ]

Quacks pretend to cure other men's disorders, but fail to find a remedy for their own. [ Cicero ]

Rarely does punishment, with halting foot, fail to overtake the criminal in his flight. [ Horace ]

A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough. [ Bovee ]

The belief and hope of heaven, is a sufficient encouragement to virtue, when all others fail. [ Proverb ]

There is nothing in the universe I fear but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it. [ Mary Lyon ]

Although strength should fail, the effort will deserve praise. In great enterprises the attempt is enough. [ Propertius ]

Men must have righteous principles in the first place, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions. [ Luther ]

Out of the smallest a great is at length composed, and none of all can fail, unless the whole is fated to break up. [ Rückert ]

There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that, - to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail. [ George Eliot ]

Impulse is, after all, the best linguist; its logic, if not conformable to Aristotle, cannot fail to be most convincing. [ Thoreau ]

There is no tomorrow; though before our face the shadow named so stretches, we always fail to overtake it, hasten as we may. [ Margaret J. Preston ]

Few things are impracticable in themselves: and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail of success. [ Rochefoucauld ]

Many men and women spend their lives in unsuccessful attempts to spin the flax God sends them upon a wheel they can never use. [ J. G. Holland ]

A man, if he be active and energetic, can hardly fail also, be he never so selfish, of benefiting the general public interest. [ Benjamin F. Butler ]

Wherever there is failure, there is some giddiness, some superstition about luck, some step omitted, which Nature never pardons. [ Emerson ]

Never be discouraged because good things go on so slowly here; and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. [ Charles Dickens ]

Though thou art disappointed in a hope, never let hope fail thee; though one door is shut, there are thousands still open for thee. [ Rückert ]

Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism; as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking. [ Colton ]

Failures always overtake those who have the power to do, without the will to act, and who need that essential quality in life, energy. [ James Ellis ]

If people would but provide for eternity with the same solicitude and real care as they do for this life, they could not fail of heaven. [ Tillotson ]

You may fail to shine, in the opinion of others, both in your conversation and actions, from being superior, as well as inferior to them. [ Greville ]

Complaints are vain; we will try to do better another time. Tomorrow and tomorrow. A few designs and a few failures, and the time of designing is past. [ Johnson ]

Most books fail, not so much from a want of ability in their authors, as from an absence in their productions of a thorough development of their ability. [ Bovee ]

Shouldst thou fail, let it not trouble thee, for failure (defect) leads to love. If thou canst not free thyself from failure, thou wilt never forgive others. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Mothers! endeavor to educate your daughters; tram them up to be faithful, grateful, dutiful daughters, and they will not fail to be excellent wives and mothers. [ Mrs. A. G. Whittelsey ]

Other blessings may be taken away, but if we have acquired a good friend by goodness, we have a blessing which improves in value when others fail. It is even heightened by sufferings. [ William Ellery Channing ]

Not only so, but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of error is without some latent charm derived from truth. [ Whewell ]

Let your pen fail, begin to trifle with blotting-paper, look at the ceiling, bite your nails, and otherwise dally with your purpose, and you waste your time, scatter your thoughts, and repress the nervous energy necessary for your task. [ G. H. Lewes ]

We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the industries and technologies of tomorrow. [ President Donald J. Trump, Presidential Inaugeration Speech, Jan 20, 2017 ]

Words, those fickle daughters of the earth, are the creation of a being that is finite, and when applied to explain that which is infinite, they fail; for that which is made surpasses not the maker; nor can that which is immeasurable by our thoughts be measured by our tongues. [ Colton ]

Albeit failure in any cause produces a correspondent misery in the soul, yet it is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully eschew. [ Keats ]

Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed in this light, the necessity of labor is not a chastisement, but a blessing, - the very root and spring of all that we call progress in individuals and civilization in nations. [ Samuel Smiles ]

Most people give up before they start because they think it is too hard, there is too much against me here, I can’t do this on my own, I don’t have the resources. I was on the back to work scheme when I applied. I didn’t have resources... It never occurred to me to fail. I always knew it was part of my destiny to do that thing. [ Mary Reynolds, 2002 Gold Medal Winner of the Chelsea Flower Show ]

Courage, by keeping the senses quiet, and the understanding clear, puts us in a condition to receive true intelligence, to make just computations upon danger, and pronounce rightly upon that which threatens us. Innocence of life, consciousness of worth, and great expectations, are the best foundations of courage. These ingredients make a richer cordial than youth can prepare. They warm the heart at eighty, and seldom fail in operation. [ Collier ]

The man who makes a success of an important venture never waits for the crowd. He strikes out for himself. It takes nerve, it takes a great lot of grit; but the man that succeeds has both. Anyone can fail. The public admires the man who has enough confidence in himself to take a chance. These chances are the main things after all. The man who tries to succeed must expect to be criticised. Nothing important was ever done but the greater number consulted previously doubted the possibility. Success is the accomplishment of that which most people think can't be done. [ C. V. White ]

fail in Scrabble®

The word fail is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 7

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Play In The Letters fail:

FAIL
(33)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word fail

FAIL
(33)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(22)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(15)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(12)
FAIL
(11)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(8)
FAIL
(8)
FAIL
(8)
FAIL
(7)

The 73 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In fail

FAIL
(33)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(22)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(16)
FA
(15)
IF
(15)
IF
(15)
FAIL
(15)
FA
(15)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FA
(13)
IF
(13)
FAIL
(12)
FAIL
(11)
IF
(10)
FA
(10)
IF
(10)
FA
(10)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
AIL
(9)
AIL
(9)
IF
(9)
FA
(9)
AIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(8)
FAIL
(8)
FAIL
(8)
IF
(7)
FAIL
(7)
FA
(7)
LA
(6)
IF
(6)
LA
(6)
AI
(6)
AIL
(6)
AI
(6)
AIL
(6)
FA
(6)
AIL
(6)
AIL
(5)
IF
(5)
AIL
(5)
AIL
(5)
AIL
(5)
FA
(5)
AIL
(4)
AIL
(4)
LA
(4)
AIL
(4)
LA
(4)
AI
(4)
AI
(4)
LA
(4)
AI
(4)
AI
(4)
LA
(4)
LA
(3)
AI
(3)
LA
(3)
AI
(3)
AIL
(3)
LA
(2)
AI
(2)

fail in Words With Friends™

The word fail is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 8

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters fail:

FAIL
(48)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word fail

FAIL
(48)
FAIL
(36)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(20)
FAIL
(18)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(13)
FAIL
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FAIL
(12)
FAIL
(11)
FAIL
(10)
FAIL
(10)
FAIL
(10)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FAIL
(8)

The 77 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In fail

FAIL
(48)
FAIL
(36)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
FAIL
(20)
FAIL
(18)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FAIL
(16)
FA
(15)
FA
(15)
IF
(15)
IF
(15)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(14)
FAIL
(13)
IF
(13)
FA
(13)
AIL
(12)
AIL
(12)
AIL
(12)
FAIL
(12)
FAIL
(12)
FAIL
(11)
FAIL
(10)
IF
(10)
FAIL
(10)
IF
(10)
FA
(10)
AIL
(10)
FAIL
(10)
FA
(10)
LA
(9)
FAIL
(9)
IF
(9)
LA
(9)
FAIL
(9)
FA
(9)
AIL
(8)
FAIL
(8)
AIL
(8)
AIL
(8)
AIL
(8)
LA
(7)
FA
(7)
IF
(7)
AIL
(7)
AI
(6)
AI
(6)
AIL
(6)
AIL
(6)
LA
(6)
AIL
(6)
LA
(6)
FA
(6)
IF
(6)
LA
(5)
IF
(5)
LA
(5)
AIL
(5)
AIL
(5)
FA
(5)
AI
(4)
AI
(4)
AIL
(4)
AI
(4)
LA
(4)
AI
(4)
AI
(3)
LA
(3)
AI
(3)
AI
(2)

Words within the letters of fail

2 letter words in fail (4 words)

3 letter words in fail (1 word)

4 letter words in fail (1 word)

fail + 1 blank (8 words)

Words containing the sequence fail

Words that end with fail (1 word)

Word Growth involving fail

Shorter words in fail

ai ail

fa

Longer words containing fail

failed

failing failings

failing neverfailing

failing nonfailing

failing unfailing unfailingly

failing unfailing unfailingness

fails failsafe failsafed

fails failsafe failsafes

fails failsafing

failure failures nonfailures

failure nonfailure nonfailures