fail-safe
Americanadjective
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Electronics. pertaining to or noting a mechanism built into a system, as in an early warning system or a nuclear reactor, for insuring safety should the system fail to operate properly.
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equipped with a secondary system that insures continued operation even if the primary system fails.
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(sometimes initial capital letter) of, relating to, or designating a system of coded military controls in which bombers dispatched to a prearranged point as part of a standard operating procedure cannot advance farther without direct orders from a designated authority and cannot have the nuclear warheads they carry armed until they have passed their prearranged point.
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guaranteed to work; totally reliable.
a fail-safe recipe for a cheese soufflé.
noun
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(sometimes initial capital letter) the point beyond which the bombers cannot go without specific instruction; the fail-safe point.
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something designed to work or function automatically to prevent breakdown of a mechanism, system, or the like.
verb (used with object)
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fail-safes,
present (3rd person singular)
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fail-safed,
past participle, past
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fail-safing
present participle
adjective
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designed to return to a safe condition in the event of a failure or malfunction
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(of a nuclear weapon) capable of being deactivated in the event of a failure or accident
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unlikely to fail; foolproof
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
fail-safesimple
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fail-safessimple
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have fail-safedperfect
-
has fail-safedperfect
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am fail-safingprogressive
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are fail-safingprogressive
-
is fail-safingprogressive
-
have been fail-safingperfect progressive
-
has been fail-safingperfect progressive
Past
-
fail-safedsimple
-
had fail-safedperfect
-
was fail-safingprogressive
-
were fail-safingprogressive
-
had been fail-safingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fail-safe
First recorded in 1945–50; apparently from verb phrase to fail safe(ly)
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:
Another issue identified by the investigation was that no fail-safe system - involving valve position indicators and gas pressure sensors - had been installed to alert the crew that the valve was failing.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Those recorded cues act as a fail-safe against technical malfunctions during the broadcast, though the orchestra aims to play everything live.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
Even if you plan to be fully engaged with managing money into retirement, a financial adviser could be a fail-safe if you can no longer make sound decisions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
Level 4 automated vehicles, which this research was based on, are capable of automatically starting fail-safe and fail-operational protocols.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2024
But Seabiscuit was a fail-safe moneymaker, drawing record crowds and wagering virtually everywhere he showed his face.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
And because airplanes are packed with fail-safes, there are times when a flight with a malfunctioning system can safely proceed simply by relying on one or more backups instead.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
However, discussions of fall-backs and fail-safes have not been welcome in the Wales camp while the possibility of automatic qualification remains.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2023
It needs fail-safes that make it easier for factories to restart after being shut.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 17, 2021
“There are all sorts of fail-safes built into the system to avoid falsely accusing somebody of something,” Scollay said as the sport began the wait for the second result and Medina Spirit headed for Pimlico.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2021
That was the beauty of all these fail-safes and layers of security.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
