Other forms: failed, failing, fails
To fail is to try something and not get there. You sat the driving test, the examiner shook his head, you failed.
Machines fail as well as people: the brakes failed on the hill, the power failed at nine, my memory fails me. An exam works in both directions, since you fail the exam and the examiner fails you. Fail TO do something is the trap, because it rarely means you tried and lost — he failed to reply just means no reply came. You can also fail a person, which means you let them down when they needed you, and a business that fails has collapsed. The noun is failure, and without fail means every single time, no exceptions.
1verbfailTo try to do something and not succeed.~12%
“They failed to reach the summit and turned back at four.”
2verbexpectedTo not do something that was expected or required.~36%
“He failed to mention that the flat had no heating.”
3verbflunkTo not reach the required standard in an exam or test; or, of an examiner, to judge somebody as not reaching it.~12%
“She failed her theory test twice and passed the third time.”
synonyms: flunk
4verbworkingTo stop working properly.~36%
“The engine failed halfway up the pass.”
5verbmomentTo let somebody down at a moment when they needed you.~2%
“He felt he had failed his daughter and could not say so.”
6verbbusinessOf a business or an organ of the body, to collapse or stop functioning.~2%
“Two of the town's three bakeries failed within a year.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Fail came through Middle English failen from Old French falir, from a Vulgar Latin verb fallire, itself a reshaping of Latin fallō, to deceive or disappoint. The root behind it meant to lie or to stumble. Dutch falen, German fehlen, to lack, and Spanish fallar are the same word in other mouths — a whole continent agreeing that failing feels like being let down.
Old French
falir
Middle English
failen
English, today
fail
From Middle English failen, from Old French falir. Middle English failen, borrowed from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin fallire, alteration of Latin fallō (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰāl- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European (s)gʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”). Compare gsw fääle (“to lack”), cim béelan, véelan (“to fail”), veln (“to be absent, missing”), Dutch falen, feilen (“to fail, miss”), German fallieren, fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fallera (“to fail, break, malfunction”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA