fail
Americanverb (used without object)
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fails,
present (3rd person singular)
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failed,
past participle, past
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failing
present participle
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to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved.
The experiment failed because of poor planning.
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to receive less than the passing grade or mark in an examination, class, or course of study.
He failed in history.
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to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient or absent; fall short.
Our supplies failed.
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to dwindle, pass, or die away.
The flowers failed for lack of rain.
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to lose strength or vigor; become weak.
His health failed after the operation.
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to become unable to meet or pay debts or business obligations; become insolvent or bankrupt.
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(of a building member, structure, machine part, etc.) to break, bend, crush, or be otherwise destroyed or made useless because of an excessive load.
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to stop functioning or operating.
The electricity failed during the storm.
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Slang.
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to make an embarrassing or humorous mistake, be in a humiliating situation, etc., and be subject to ridicule.
Showed up late to the wedding? You fail!
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to be embarrassingly incompetent, stupid, etc..
She fails at life. I just failed at walking and fell on my face.
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to be bad or of inferior quality.
The play is terrible—even the music fails.
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verb (used with object)
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fails,
present (3rd person singular)
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failed,
past participle, past
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failing
present participle
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to be unsuccessful in the performance or completion of.
He failed to do his duty.
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(of some expected or usual resource) to prove of no use or help to.
His friends failed him. Words failed her.
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to receive less than a passing grade or mark in.
He failed history.
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to declare (a person) unsuccessful in a test, course of study, etc.; give less than a passing grade to.
The professor failed him in history.
noun
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Slang.
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an embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc., that is subject to ridicule and given an exaggerated importance.
Their app update is a massive fail.
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the condition or quality resulting from having failed in this way.
His online post is full of fail.
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a person who fails in this way.
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Stock Exchange.
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a stockbroker's inability to deliver or receive security within the required time after sale or purchase.
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such an undelivered security.
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Obsolete. failure as to performance, occurrence, etc.
interjection
adjective
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unsuccessful; failed.
a totally fail policy.
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Slang.
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of or noting an embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc..
the top 100 funniest fail photos on the internet.
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embarrassingly incompetent, stupid, etc.
Why am I so fail?
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very bad or of inferior quality.
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idioms
verb
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to be unsuccessful in an attempt (at something or to do something)
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(intr) to stop operating or working properly
the steering failed suddenly
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to judge or be judged as being below the officially accepted standard required for success in (a course, examination, etc)
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(tr) to prove disappointing, undependable, or useless to (someone)
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(tr) to neglect or be unable (to do something)
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(intr) to prove partly or completely insufficient in quantity, duration, or extent
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(intr) to weaken; fade away
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(intr) to go bankrupt or become insolvent
noun
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a failure to attain the required standard, as in an examination
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definitely; with certainty
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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failsimple
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failssimple
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have failedperfect
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has failedperfect
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am failingprogressive
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are failingprogressive
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is failingprogressive
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have been failingperfect progressive
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has been failingperfect progressive
Past
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failedsimple
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had failedperfect
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was failingprogressive
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were failingprogressive
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had been failingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fail
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English failen, from Anglo-French, Old French faillir, from unattested Vulgar Latin fallīre, for Latin fallere “to disappoint, deceive”
Explanation
The verb fail describes something that stops working, like brakes in a car that fail, or is found to be unacceptable, like restaurants that fail their inspection for cleanliness. The verb fail comes from the Old French word faillir, meaning “be lacking,” “miss,” or “not succeed.” You can fail an exam, which means you didn't get at least a minimum number of points to pass. You can fail to live up to your potential, meaning you aren't able to meet expectations. When businesses fail, it means financial problems force them to close.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What these sales fail to capture is what people spend on services such as travel, recreation and entertainment.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Adding to the risks associated with the heatwave, a few tropical nights - where temperatures fail to drop below 20C - are also on the cards as increasingly humid air spreads into western areas.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
These workers are developing silicosis, a condition in which microscopic silica dust contained in the stone slabs they grind and polish is cutting up the inside of their lungs until the organs fail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
The findings suggest that long dinosaur trackways can preserve behavioral details that shorter stretches of footprints may fail to reveal.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
“I can. But I’ll probably fail it again. I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. For any of this.”
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
“This fails to provide any safeguards for Los Angeles taxpayers and most assuredly risks the city’s fiscal stability,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said after voting against the agreement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
This is a thing that begins making its way through Congress and eventually fails.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
It never fails to sound like a call to arms.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
By raising average temperatures, it makes extreme heat more likely and, when rain fails, increases evaporation and dries soils faster.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Peter’s movie-watching experiment is a perfect example of what happens when mind reading fails.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Dr. Aaron Rollins, a celebrity plastic surgeon who was building a home on the island, got frustrated after four years of failed efforts to receive membership to the club.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
But most of Medicare’s payment experiments have failed, so private insurers and employers should test outcome-based models of their own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
The city says Lineage failed to meet the deadline Friday, while the company says it should have more time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
During a two-day hearing at the High Court earlier this week, barristers for the MoJ said the Parole Board had failed to assess Razzell's risk properly and called for the decision to be reversed.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
She failed to catch anything, but she was never bored, for no two days were alike.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Leavitt, by never failing to placate, flatter and worship her boss, has displayed a singular and decisive pathway, although not a very original one, to political success.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Yet we also want treatment options that are sustainably affordable and accessible to everyone — and that is where our current system is failing us.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Only he can say for sure, but his companies are under federal investigation for failing to disclose and properly account for billions of dollars of loans among related entities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
In the late 1950s, the party accused him of failing to uphold Maoist orthodoxy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Now that Elsie and I are out of clues, and the second tryout is only a couple days away, we decide to shift all our focus into not failing.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
