fail

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[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French faillir, from Latin fallere (to deceive, disappoint).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Verb

fail (third-person singular simple present fails, present participle failing, simple past and past participle failed)

  1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
    Throughout my life, I have always failed.
  2. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
    The truck failed to start.
  3. (transitive) To neglect.
    The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
  4. (intransitive, of a machine, etc.) To cease to operate correctly.
    After running five minutes, the engine failed.
  5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. II, Gospel of Mammonism
      A poor Irish Widow […] went forth with her three children, bare of all resource, to solicit help from the Charitable Establishments of that City. At this Charitable Establishment and then at that she was refused; referred from one to the other, helped by none; — till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her: she sank down in typhus-fever […]
  6. (intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
    I failed in English last year.
  7. (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
    The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.

[edit] Usage notes

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Antonyms

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

[edit] Noun

fail (plural fails)

  1. a failure, especially of a financial transaction
  2. a failing grade in an academic examination

[edit] References

[edit] Anagrams


[edit] Irish

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: [fˠalʲ]

[edit] Etymology

From Old Irish foil, from Proto-Celtic *vali-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel-. Cognates include Ancient Greek ἕλιξ (helix, something twisted).

[edit] Noun

fail f.

  1. ring
  2. bracelet
  3. wreath
  4. sty

[edit] Declension

Second declension

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative fail faileanna
Vocative a fhail a fhaileanna
Genitive faile faileanna
Dative fail faileanna

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an fhail na faileanna
Genitive na faile na bhfaileanna
Dative leis an bhfail

don fhail

leis na faileanna
Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fail fhail bhfail
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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