failure
Pluralfailures (some meanings)
- 1The state or condition of not meeting a desired or intended goal, the opposite of success.
The mission's failure disappointed the entire team.
He slowly learned to treat failure as part of growing.
UsageCommon phrases: end in failure, fear of failure, doomed to failure; it can be graded: a partial failure.
Similardefeat
Oppositesuccess, achievement, triumph, victory
Note
Rocket scientists even speak of a successful failure: a test that goes wrong but teaches enough lessons, at low enough risk, to count as progress.
- 2The breakdown of a machine, system, or part of the body, so that it stops working properly; heart, liver, or kidney failure is when an organ can no longer do its job.
Engine failure forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The bridge collapsed after a sudden structural failure.
UsageUsually after the name of what stops working properly: engine failure, heart failure, a power failure, brake failures.
Note
Ian Walmsley writes of individual train failures in Modern Railways (2019), each one to be tackled as it arises. The phrase bank failure sits right on the line with the bankruptcy sense: when the item that stops functioning is a bank, breaking down and being unable to pay are hard to tell apart.
- 3The neglect or omission of something, especially something that should have been done, whether or not any attempt was made.
Her failure to report the income eventually led to a heavy fine.
The company's failure to act quickly cost it many customers.
UsageUsually failure to + verb (failure to act, her failure to report it), and it usually suggests blame.
Note
Here failure means not doing, and trying is beside the point: a failure to report income may involve no attempt at all.
- 4A person, object, or effort that has failed or is incapable of succeeding.
Critics called the film a commercial failure.
She refused to see herself as a failure despite the setback.
UsageWith a: a failure, a complete failure, a commercial failure; people often feel like a failure.
- 5The financial collapse of a business that can no longer pay its debts; bankruptcy.
The firm's failure left hundreds of creditors unpaid.
The failure of the family-owned bakery left dozens of suppliers waiting for payments they would never receive.
UsageOften after the kind of business: bank failures, business failures.
Similarbankruptcy, collapse, insolvency, ruin
Oppositesolvency
Practice
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Origin
Old French "faillir" ("to fail") gave Anglo-Norman "failer," the source of the English word.