Definition of fails

"fails" 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)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for fails

It is the empiric who never fails. [ Willmott ]

When all fruit fails, welcome haws. [ Proverb ]

Gold - the picklock that never fails. [ Massinger ]

Oft Expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises. [ William Shakespeare ]

Then, rising with Aurora's light,
The muse invoked, sit down to write;
Blot out, correct, insert, refine.
Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when invention fails.
To scratch your head and bite your nails. [ Swift ]

For daring nonsense seldom fails to hit,
Like scattered shot, and pass with some for wit. [ Butler ]

Goodness is the only investment that never fails. [ Thoreau ]

The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary.
And I am near to fall, infirm and weary. [ Longfellow ]

Knavery may serve a turn, but honesty never fails. [ Proverb ]

Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails. [ Addison ]

The silence often of pure innocence persuades, when speaking fails. [ William Shakespeare ]

Wherever the devil makes a purchase, he never fails to set his mark. [ Goldsmith ]

Time never fails to bring every exalted reputation to a strict scrutiny. [ Fisher Ames ]

Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our buried hopes. [ Lady Blessington ]

Who fails to grieve when just occasion calls.
Or grieves too much, deserves not to be blest: Inhuman, or effeminate, his heart. [ Young ]

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, and fills up all the mighty void of sense. [ Pope ]

Be not simply good. Be good for something. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. [ Henry D. Thoreau ]

A mind full of knowledge is a mind that never fails. Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds. [ Emerson ]

Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon itself: for every guilty person is his own hangman. [ Seneca ]

The proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded. [ W. G. Simms ]

Affectation in any part of our carriage is lighting up a candle to our defects, and never fails to make us be taken notice of either as wanting sense or wanting sincerity. [ Locke ]

That constant desire of pleasing, which is the peculiar quality of some, may be called the happiest of all desires in this, that it scarcely ever fails of attaining its ends, when not disgraced by affectation. [ Fielding ]

Magnificence is likewise a source of the sublime. A great profusion of things which are splendid or valuable in themselves is magnificent. The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur. [ Burke ]

fails in Scrabble®

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

Scrabble® Letter Score: 8

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Play In The Letters fails:

FAILS
(36)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word fails

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The 195 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In fails

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fails in Words With Friends™

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

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 9

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

FAILS
(51)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word fails

FAILS
(51)
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(36)
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The 200 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In fails

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Words within the letters of fails

2 letter words in fails (6 words)

3 letter words in fails (3 words)

4 letter words in fails (3 words)

5 letter words in fails (1 word)

fails + 1 blank (5 words)

Words containing the sequence fails

Words that start with fails (5 words)

Words with fails in them (1 word)

Words that end with fails (1 word)

Word Growth involving fails

Shorter words in fails

ai ail ails

ai ail fail

fa fail

Longer words containing fails

failsafe failsafed

failsafe failsafes

failsafing