failed
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of failed
First recorded in 1650–60; fail ( def. ) + -ed 2 ( def. )
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.
“Those costs should not be shifted onto the very people the system failed to protect.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Not because of the investigations into allegations that insurance companies under Walter’s umbrella failed to properly disclose and conduct transactions between other companies he controls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
Medicare prescriptions looks limited, while Novo Nordisk’s ziltivekimab is now effectively out of the picture, after the drug failed to reduce risk of heart attack or stroke in a late-stage clinical trial.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
While Sweden's Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis, pushed on by competition from Greece's Emmanouil Karalis, failed in three shots at improving his own pole vault world record to 6.32m.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
We had some of them back on the Ranch, just in case our solar panels failed.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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.
