Definitions for fail

• Definition
• Anagrams (33)

fail fail

Spelling: [feyl]

IPA: /feɪl/

Fail is a 4 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 7 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 8 points.

You can make 33 anagrams from letters in fail (afil).

Definitions for fail

noun

1. Slang. an embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc., that is subject to ridicule and given an exaggerated importance: the condition or quality resulting from having failed in this way: a person who fails in this way.
2. Stock Exchange. a stockbroker's inability to deliver or receive security within the required time after sale or purchase. such an undelivered security.
3. Obsolete. failure as to performance, occurrence, etc.

Idioms

1. without fail, with certainty; positively:

adjective

1. unsuccessful; failed:
2. Slang. of or noting an embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc.: embarrassingly incompetent, stupid, etc: very bad or of inferior quality.

interjection

1. Slang. (used to mock an embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc., giving it an exaggerated importance): (used to indicate that something is bad or of inferior quality)

verb (used with object)

1. to be unsuccessful in the performance or completion of:
2. (of some expected or usual resource) to prove of no use or help to:
3. to receive less than a passing grade or mark in:
4. to declare (a person) unsuccessful in a test, course of study, etc.; give less than a passing grade to:

verb (used without object)

1. to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved:
2. to receive less than the passing grade or mark in an examination, class, or course of study:
3. to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient or absent; fall short:
4. to dwindle, pass, or die away:
5. to lose strength or vigor; become weak:
6. to become unable to meet or pay debts or business obligations; become insolvent or bankrupt.
7. (of a building member, structure, machine part, etc.) to break, bend, crush, or be otherwise destroyed or made useless because of an excessive load.
8. to stop functioning or operating:
9. Slang. to make an embarrassing or humorous mistake, be in a humiliating situation, etc., and be subject to ridicule: to be embarrassingly incompetent, stupid, etc.: to be bad or of inferior quality:

Origin of fail

1175-1225; Middle English failen Anglo-French, Old French faillir Vulgar Latin *fallīre, for Latin fallere to disappoint, deceive

Examples for fail

Diets not only fail to make us thinner, they also fail to make us healthier in the long term.

The Big Five banks dubbed too big to fail, are 35 percent bigger than they were when the meltdown was triggered.

To my mind, under the conditions I have referred to, such could not fail to be the case.

If an increase of power was needed to secure this, they would not fail to ask it.

If we fail, there must be a retreat westwards at least seventy miles.

These banks…are a whole lot bigger now than they were when we bailed them out in 2008 because they were too big to fail.

Instead, everyone agrees it has simply reinscribed too big to fail as explicit law.

God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me!

Think about it: Dodd-Frank was explicitly passed to drive a stake through the heart of the implicit concept of “too big to fail.”

He touched her hand with his lips and said gravely: "I will not fail your trust."