fails

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of fail.

   The backup generator fails to start during long outages.

   Every spring, the bridge fails inspection because of corroded supports.

   Note

   A single present-tense spelling that carries most of the verb's range. When an infinitive follows, it marks a goal not reached (the pump fails to prime). With a direct object, it can mean letting someone down (his nerve fails him) or not passing a course (she fails chemistry). The same spelling is also the noun plural, so "three fails" and "it fails" belong to different words.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of fail.

   The compilation reel collected the year's most spectacular fails into ten minutes.

   Among a dozen attempts, three were clean successes and the rest were fails.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that serves several different nouns. In finance, fails are transactions that did not go through. In schools, they are failing grades. In American slang, they are attempts or things that flopped. The slang sense of shoddy workmanship is uncountable and has no plural, so you say "a lot of fail" rather than "fails." Fails can also be pieces of turf cut from grassland.

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