failed star
AmericanEtymology
Origin of failed star
First recorded in 1970–75
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.
“The first criterion was there should be no light coming from the lens,” Sahu says, to rule out more prosaic objects such as a failed star known as a brown dwarf.
From Scientific American • Feb. 3, 2022
More likely, they wrote, it was a brown dwarf, a sort of failed star that never ignited nuclear fusion reactions.
From Scientific American • Nov. 12, 2019
They don’t know if it is a gigantic planet many times larger than Saturn or a failed star.
From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2016
That puts it very, very close to the upper limit of what a planet is, and at the lower end of it being a brown dwarf, a sort-of failed star.
From Slate • Nov. 19, 2012
With Willis, and his legitimate acting chops, nearby, it only makes Stallone seem pathetic: a failed star hoping for a comeback and pulling favors from his cooler, more successful friends.
From Salon • Aug. 13, 2010
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.
