fail-safe

American  

[feyl-seyf] / ˈfeɪlˌseɪf /

adjective

1. 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.

2. equipped with a secondary system that insures continued operation even if the primary system fails.

3. (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.

4. guaranteed to work; totally reliable.

   a fail-safe recipe for a cheese soufflé.

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noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter) the point beyond which the bombers cannot go without specific instruction; the fail-safe point.

2. something designed to work or function automatically to prevent breakdown of a mechanism, system, or the like.

verb (used with object)

fail-safed, fail-safing

1. to make fail-safe.

fail-safe British  

adjective

1. designed to return to a safe condition in the event of a failure or malfunction

2. (of a nuclear weapon) capable of being deactivated in the event of a failure or accident

3. unlikely to fail; foolproof

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verb

1. (intr) to return to a safe condition in the event of a failure or malfunction

Etymology

Origin of fail-safe

First recorded in 1945–50; apparently from verb phrase to fail safe(ly)

Example Sentences

“Ella changed ink and words into magic. She turned that into something. Remember what Ollie said? There’s a fail-safe. We already have the door. It’s in the words from the missing pages.”

From Literature

The boats had rejected their inputs and automatically idled as a fail-safe, making them “dead” in the water.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Only the person who activated the STM can use it again. My mom has fail-safes against everything.”

From Literature

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

Congress created the Insurrection Act as a fail-safe in response to armed mobs attacking their neighbors and organized militias seeking to overthrow elected officials.

From Los Angeles Times