fail

1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.Examples: "Throughout my life, I have always failed."; "If they ſhoulde gyue battayle it was to be doubted, leaſt through treaſon amõgſt themſelues, the armie ſhould be betrayed into the enimies hands, the which would not fayle to execute all kinde of crueltie in the ſlaughter of the whole nation."; "As the world’s drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one."Synonyms: miscarry, come to nought, come to nothing, crash and burn, fall flat, fall on one's face, go downhill, go down the toiletintransitive

2. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)Examples: "The truck failed to start."transitive

3. (transitive) To neglect.Examples: "The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors."; "Those who have advocated the closure of the G.C. have so far failed to say by which alternative route this North-to-West traffic could be carried."transitive

4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.Examples: "After running five minutes, the engine failed."; "We also found that the only emergency egress from the tram was by smashing the front or rear windscreens, and that emergency lighting had failed when the tram overturned."intransitive

5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.Examples: "I've failed my parents many times growing up."; "There shall not fail thee a man on the throne."; "A poor Irish Widow […] went forth with her three children, bare of all resource, to solicit help from the Charitable Establishments of that City. At this Charitable Establishment and then at that she was refused; referred from one to the other, helped by none; — till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her: she sank down in typhus-fever […]"transitive

6. (ambitransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.Examples: "I failed English last year."Synonyms: flunkambitransitive