Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.[1] The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person might consider a failure what another person considers a success, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation.
«Failing is not a crime but lack of effort is» – sign on Leh to Nubra road
It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task.
In American history
Cultural historian Scott Sandage argues that the concept of failure underwent a metamorphosis in the United States over the course of the 19th century. Initially, Sandage notes, financial failure, or bankruptcy, was understood as an event in a person’s life: an occurrence, not a character trait. The notion of a person being a failure, Sandage argues, is a relative historical novelty: «[n]ot until the eve of the Civil War did Americans commonly label an insolvent man ‘a failure'».[2] Accordingly, the notion of failure acquired both moralistic and individualistic connotations. By the late 19th century, to be a failure was to have a deficient character.[3]
In business
Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic engineering.
A commercial failure is a product or company that does not reach expectations of success.
Most of the items listed below had high expectations, significant financial investments, and/or widespread publicity, but fell far short of success. Due to the subjective nature of «success» and «meeting expectations», there can be disagreement about what constitutes a «major flop».
- For flops in computer and video gaming, see list of commercial failures in computer and video gaming
- For company failures related to the 1997–2001 dot-com bubble, see dot-com company
- Box-office bomb
Sometimes, commercial failures can receive a cult following, with the initial lack of commercial success even lending a cachet of subcultural coolness.[4][5]
In education
A failing grade is a mark or grade given to a student to indicate that they did not pass an assignment or a class. Grades may be given as numbers, letters or other symbols. By the year 1884, Mount Holyoke College was evaluating students’ performance on a 100-point or percentage scale and then summarizing those numerical grades by assigning letter grades to numerical ranges. Mount Holyoke assigned letter grades A through E, with E indicating lower than 75% performance and designating failure. The A–E system spread to Harvard University by 1890. In 1898, Mount Holyoke adjusted the grading system, adding an F grade for failing (and adjusting the ranges corresponding to the other letters). The practice of letter grades spread more broadly in the first decades of the 20th century. By the 1930s, the letter E was dropped from the system, for unclear reasons.[6]
In marketing
Marketing researchers have distinguished between outcome and process failures. An outcome failure is a failure to obtain a good or service at all; a process failure is a failure to receive the good or service in an appropriate or preferable way.[7] Thus, a person who is only interested in the final outcome of an activity would consider it to be an outcome failure if the core issue has not been resolved or a core need is not met. A process failure occurs, by contrast, when, although the activity is completed successfully, the customer still perceives the way in which the activity is conducted to be below an expected standard or benchmark.
Wan and Chan note that outcome and process failures are associated with different kinds of detrimental effects to the consumer. They observe that «[a]n outcome failure involves a loss of economic resources (i.e., money, time) and a process failure involves a loss of social resources (i.e., social esteem)».[8]
In philosophy
Philosophers in the analytic tradition have suggested that failure is connected to the notion of an omission. In ethics, omissions are distinguished from acts: acts involve an agent doing something; omissions involve an agent’s not doing something.
Both actions and omissions may be morally significant. The classic example of a morally significant omission is one’s failure to rescue someone in dire need of assistance. It may seem that one is morally blameworthy for failing to rescue in such a case.
Patricia G. Smith notes that there are two ways one can not do something: consciously or unconsciously.[9] A conscious omission is intentional, whereas an unconscious omission may be negligent, but is not intentional.[10] Accordingly, Smith suggests, we ought to understand failure as involving a situation in which it is reasonable to expect a person to do something, but they do not do it—regardless of whether they intend to do it or not.[11]
Randolph Clarke, commenting on Smith’s work, suggests that «[w]hat makes [a] failure to act an omission is the applicable norm».[12] In other words, a failure to act becomes morally significant when a norm demands that some action be taken, and it is not taken.
In science
Scientific hypotheses can be said to fail when they lead to predictions that do not match the results found in experiments. Alternatively, experiments can be regarded as failures when they do not provide helpful information about nature. However, the standards of what constitutes failure are not clear-cut. For example, the Michelson–Morley experiment became the «most famous failed experiment in history» because it did not detect the motion of the Earth through the luminiferous aether as had been expected. This failure to confirm the presence of the aether would later provide support for Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity.[13]
Wired magazine editor Kevin Kelly explains that a great deal can be learned from things going wrong unexpectedly, and that part of science’s success comes from keeping blunders «small, manageable, constant, and trackable». He uses the example of engineers and programmers who push systems to their limits, breaking them to learn about them. Kelly also warns against creating a culture (e.g., school system) that punishes failure harshly, because this inhibits a creative process, and risks teaching people not to communicate important failures with others (e.g., null results).[14] Failure can also be used productively, for instance to find identify ambiguous cases that warrant further interpretation.[15][16] When studying biases in machine learning, for instance, failure can be seen as a «cybernetic rupture where pre-existing biases and structural flaws make themselves known».[17]
Internet memes
«Epic fail» redirects here. For the House episode, see Epic Fail (House).
During the early 2000s, the term fail began to be used as an interjection in the context of Internet memes. The interjection fail and the superlative form epic fail expressed derision and ridicule for mistakes deemed «eminently mockable».[18] According to linguist Ben Zimmer, the most probable origin of this usage is Blazing Star (1998), a Japanese video game whose game over message was translated into English as «You fail it».[18][19][20] The comedy website Fail Blog, launched in January 2008, featured photos and videos captioned with «fail» and its variations.[18] The #fail hashtag is used on the microblogging site Twitter to indicate contempt or displeasure, and the image that formerly accompanied the message that the site was overloaded is referred to as the «fail whale».[21]
The term «miserable failure» has also been popularized as a result of a widely known «Google bombing», which caused Google searches for the term to turn up the White House biography of George W. Bush.[22]
See also
- Catastrophic failure – Sudden and total failure from which recovery is impossible
- Cascading failure – Systemic risk of failure
- Disaster – Event or chain of events resulting in major damage, destruction or death
- Error – Incorrect or inaccurate action
- Fail-safe – Design feature or practice
- Failure analysis – process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability
- Failure mode – Specific way in which a failure occurs
- Failure rate – Frequency with which an engineered system or component fails
- Governance failure
- Market failure – Concept in public goods economics
- Murphy’s law – Adage typically stated as: «Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong»
- Normal Accidents – 1984 book by Charles Perrow
- Setting up to fail – Form of workplace bullying and no-win situation
- Single point of failure – A part whose failure will disrupt the entire system
- Structural failure – Ability of a structure to support a designed structural load without breaking
- System accident – Unanticipated interaction of multiple failures in a complex system
References
- ^ «Failure — Definition of failure by Merriam-Webster». merriam-webster.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015.
- ^ Sandage 2006, p. 12.
- ^ Sandage 2006, p. 17: This ‘American sense’ looked upon failure as ‘a moral sieve’ that trapped the loafer and passed the true man through. Such ideologies fixed blame squarely on individual faults, not extenuating circumstances …
- ^ Hunter, I. Q. (8 September 2016). Cult Film as a Guide to Life: Fandom, Adaptation, and Identity. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-62356-897-9.
- ^ Mathijs, Ernest; Sexton, Jamie (22 November 2019). The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-36223-4.
- ^ Schinske, Jeffrey; Tanner, Kimberly (2014). «Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently)». CBE: Life Sciences Education. 13 (2): 159–166. doi:10.1187/cbe.CBE-14-03-0054. ISSN 1931-7913. PMC 4041495. PMID 26086649.
- ^ Smith, Amy K.; Bolton, Ruth N.; Wagner, Janet (August 1999). «A Model of Customer Satisfaction with Service Encounters Involving Failure and Recovery». Journal of Marketing Research. 36 (3): 356–372 at 358. doi:10.1177/002224379903600305. ISSN 0022-2437. S2CID 220628355.
- ^ Wan, Lisa; Chan, Elisa (20 March 2019). «Failure is Not Fatal: Actionable Insights on Service Failure and Recovery for the Hospitality Industry». Boston Hospitality Review. 7 (1). ISSN 2326-0351.
- ^ Smith 1990, p. 159.
- ^ Smith 1990, p. 160.
- ^ Smith 1990, p. 162–163.
- ^ Clarke, Randolph (2 June 2014). Omissions: Agency, Metaphysics, and Responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 32. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199347520.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-934752-0.
- ^ Blum, Edward K.; Lototsky, Sergey V. (2006). Mathematics of Physics and Engineering. World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-256-621-8.
- ^ «THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2011 — Page 6». Edge.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ Rettberg, Jill Walker (2022). «Algorithmic failure as a humanities methodology: Machine learning’s mispredictions identify rich cases for qualitative analysis». Big Data & Society. 9 (2): 205395172211312. doi:10.1177/20539517221131290. ISSN 2053-9517. S2CID 253026358.
- ^ Munk, Anders Kristian; Olesen, Asger Gehrt; Jacomy, Mathieu (2022). «The Thick Machine: Anthropological AI between explanation and explication». Big Data & Society. 9 (1): 205395172110698. doi:10.1177/20539517211069891. ISSN 2053-9517. S2CID 250180452.
- ^ Bridges, Lauren E (2021). «Digital failure: Unbecoming the «good» data subject through entropic, fugitive, and queer data». Big Data & Society. 8 (1): 205395172097788. doi:10.1177/2053951720977882. ISSN 2053-9517. S2CID 233890960.
- ^ a b c Zimmer, Ben (7 August 2009). «How Fail Went From Verb to Interjection». The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- ^ Schofield, Jack (17 October 2008). «All your FAIL are belong to us». The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- ^ Beam, Christopher (15 October 2008). «Epic Win». Slate. Archived from the original on 25 August 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
- ^ Malik, Asmaa (24 April 2010). «Joy in the failure of others has gone competitive». Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 21 May 2010.[dead link]
- ^ Mikkelson, Barbara; Mikkelson, David P. (13 August 2007). «Someone Set Us Up The Google Bomb». Snopes.com. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
Other sources
- Sandage, Scott A. (2006). Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04305-3. OCLC 436295765.
- Smith, Patricia G. (1990). «Contemplating Failure: The Importance of Unconscious Omission». Philosophical Studies. 59 (2): 159–176. doi:10.1007/BF00368204. ISSN 0031-8116. JSTOR 4320126. S2CID 170763594.
Further reading
- Perrow, Charles. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Paperback reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-691-00412-9
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to Failure.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Failures.
- Designing Building Failures
- Zimmer, Ben (7 August 2009), «How Fail Went From Verb to Interjection», The New York Times Magazine.
- Association for the Study of Failure from Japan
отказ, недостаточность, неудача, провал, сбой, неспособность, отсутствие
существительное ↓
- неудача, неуспех, провал
- провал на экзамене
- недостаток (чего-л.); отсутствие (чего-л.)
failure of rain — сушь, отсутствие дождей 
crop failure — неурожай, недород
- неудачник
he was a failure in art — он был неудачником в искусстве
- неудавшееся дело
his invention turned out (to be) a failure — его изобретение не оправдало надежд
the play was a failure — пьеса провалилась
- невыполнение, неосуществление
failure to keep a promise — нарушение обещания
failure to pay a bill — неуплата по счёту
- оплошность, недосмотр; ошибка
they made a failure of keeping watch — они проглядели
- что-л. несостоявшееся или не сделанное
failure to report — юр. недонесение
alarm was felt at his failure to return — когда он не вернулся, все встревожились
failure to explain the noise worried us — источник шума был не установлен, и это нас волновало
his failure to answer questions made the police suspicious — подозрения полиции были вызваны тем, что он не отвечал на вопросы
- несостоятельность, банкротство; прекращение платежей
numerous bank failures — многочисленные банкротства
- тех. авария, повреждение; перебой; отказ в работе; остановка или перерыв в действии
there was a failure of electricity — отключилось электричество
failure of a pump [of a dynamo] — повреждение насоса [динамо-машины]
failure of shots — горн. осечки (при палении)
failure inhibition — предупреждение аварий
failure load — разрушающая нагрузка
- физ., тех. разрушение
- вчт. отказ; выход из строя; сбой; фатальная ошибка
- геол. обвал, обрушение; оседание; сползание
Мои примеры
Словосочетания
his failure to pass the test — его провал на экзамене / непрохождение им теста
the backwash of the company’s failure — негативные последствия банкротства компании
oppressed by a sense of failure — угнетаемый ощущением неудачи
central failure — основной недостаток
charge her failure to negligence — приписать её провал халатности
conspicuous failure — явная неудача
abject failure — полный провал
to experience failure — потерпеть неудачу
to end in / meet with failure — кончиться неудачей
crop / harvest failure — неурожай
power failure — отключение электричества
failure to work an invention — неиспользование изобретения
Примеры с переводом
She has a dread of failure.
Она боится возможной неудачи.
He was a failure in politics.
В политике он потерпел неудачу.
The play was voted a failure.
Пьеса была признана неудачной.
The failure dashed his spirits.
Неудача охладила его пыл.
He died from kidney failure.
Он умер от почечной недостаточности.
Engine failure cracked the plane up.
Самолёт потерпел катастрофу из-за отказа двигателя.
What if you elect me and I’ll turn out a failure?
Что если вы изберёте меня, а я окажусь неудачником?
ещё 23 примера свернуть
Примеры, ожидающие перевода
We listened to his familiar tale of woe as he talked again about the failure of his marriage. 
…the bill’s failure to pass in the legislature was due to nothing more than partisan spleen…
…burdened with impossibly high expectations, the movie came to be regarded as an almost failure…
Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке ☰, напротив примера.
Формы слова
noun
ед. ч.(singular): failure
мн. ч.(plural): failures
1
a
: omission of occurrence or performance
specifically
: a failing to perform a duty or expected action
failure to pay the rent on time
b(1)
: a state of inability to perform a normal function
compare heart failure
(2)
: an abrupt cessation of normal functioning
c
: a fracturing or giving way under stress
2
b
: a failing in business : bankruptcy
He was trying to rescue the company from failure.
4
: one that has failed
He felt like a failure when he wasn’t accepted into law school.
Synonyms
Example Sentences
He became discouraged by his repeated failures in business.
He was often crippled by his fear of failure.
The accident was caused by engine failure.
The patient was suffering from heart failure.
The accident was caused by a failure to use proper procedures.
She was criticized for failure to follow directions.
The drought caused crop failure.
He felt like a failure when he wasn’t accepted into law school.
The scheme was a complete failure.
See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Al Jaffee | Credit: Stephen Morton/AP As reported by the AP, Jaffee’s granddaughter confirmed his death from multiple organ failure in Manhattan on Monday.
—
Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 11 Apr. 2023
Regional and community banks — already under pressure after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March — account for 23% of the total.
—Allison Morrow, CNN, 10 Apr. 2023
Most research on monolithic integration is done at the level of improving individual devices and identifying reasons for their failure.
—Roel Baets, IEEE Spectrum, 8 Apr. 2023
The Biden administration released a new report Thursday that largely blamed the Trump administration for failures in the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
—Chuck Todd, NBC News, 7 Apr. 2023
The Fed’s financial tightening has already created greater stress in the financial system — stress that, so far, has emerged in the form of the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and troubles in other institutions, including First Republic.
—Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023
More companies are disciplining workers over their failure to comply with return-to-office mandates.
—Amber Burton, Fortune, 6 Apr. 2023
Lisa Curtis, the senior director for south and central Asia at the National Security Council during the Trump administration, told USA TODAY there were failures in Afghanistan in both the current and the previous administration.
—Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY, 6 Apr. 2023
For those unfamiliar with the debate, Ethereum and Bitcoin have for years struggled with congestion and high fees arising from their failure to keep up with demand on their blockchains.
—Kathleen Breitman, Fortune Crypto, 5 Apr. 2023
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘failure.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
alteration of earlier failer, from Anglo-French, from Old French faillir to fail
First Known Use
1643, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of failure was
in 1643
Dictionary Entries Near failure
Cite this Entry
“Failure.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/failure. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
Share
More from Merriam-Webster on failure
Last Updated:
14 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences
Subscribe to America’s largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!
Merriam-Webster unabridged
fail·ure
(fāl′yər)
n.
1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends: the failure of an experiment.
2. One that fails: a failure at one’s career.
3. The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short: a crop failure.
4. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a power failure.
5. Nonperformance of what is requested or expected; omission: failure to report a change of address.
6. The act or fact of failing to pass a course, test, or assignment.
7. A decline in strength or effectiveness.
8. The act or fact of becoming bankrupt or insolvent.
[Alteration of failer, default, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French faillir, to fail; see fail.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
failure
(ˈfeɪljə)
n
1. the act or an instance of failing
2. a person or thing that is unsuccessful or disappointing: the evening was a failure.
3. nonperformance of something required or expected: failure to attend will be punished.
4. cessation of normal operation; breakdown: a power failure.
5. an insufficiency or shortage: a crop failure.
6. a decline or loss, as in health or strength
7. (Education) the fact of not reaching the required standard in an examination, test, course, etc
8. (Banking & Finance) the act or process of becoming bankrupt or the state of being bankrupt
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
fail•ure
(ˈfeɪl yər)
n.
1. an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success.
2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: a failure to appear.
3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failure of crops.
4. deterioration or decay, esp. of vigor or strength.
5. a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.
6. a becoming insolvent or bankrupt the failure of a bank.
7. a person or thing that proves unsuccessful.
[1635–45; earlier failer a (de)fault < Anglo-French (n. use of infinitive), for faillir]
Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Success/Failure
See Also: BUSINESS; GROWTH; PAST, THE
- The anatomy of the first major success is like the young human body, a miracle only the owner can fully savor —John Fowles
- As he rose like a rocket, he fell like a stick —Thomas Paine
- A certain prosperity coats these people like scent or the layer of buttery light in a painting by Rubens —Jean Thompson
- A conqueror, like a cannon ball, must go on; if he rebounds, his career is over —The Duke of Wellington
- (The midlist author is) dogged by his past sales record, like a utility infielder with a .228 lifetime batting average —Phillip Lopate, New York Times Book Review, May 24, 1987
- Failed … like an old hanging bridge —Marge Piercy
- Fail like a five-year plan —Derek Lambert
- Failure grabs a man like an old and shabby suit —Derek Lambert
- (A great beauty) flourishing like a rose —Isak Dinesen
- Flourishing like a weed in a hot house —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
- Flourishing like trees —Hilma Wolitzer
- Had risen to his great height like a man lifted to the ceiling by a sort of slow explosion —G. K. Chesterton
- High office is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit, reptiles and eagles —Jean Le Rond d’Alembert
- His life, day after day, was failing like an unreplenished stream —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Moving up hand over hand … like a champion —Tom Wolfe
- Pursued success as a knight the Holy Grail —Anon
See Also: PERSISTENCE
- Sailed through the world like a white yacht jubilant with flags —John Gardner
- Selling like lemonade at a track meet —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Sell like hotcakes —Anon
Different industries have coined many phrases for things which sell well. This American simile which came into use in the middle of the nineteenth century is still the most widely used. For a twist in meaning there’s “Selling like cold hot cakes” from The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley.
- Sold [books by nineteenth century author Karl May] like pancakes topped by wild blueberries and heavy cream —Vincent Canby, New York Times, June 25, 1986
- Sold like picks and pans in a gold rush —Robert Guenther, Wall Street Journal, August 6, 1986
- Success is as ice cold and lonely as the North Pole —Vicki Baum
See Also: ALONENESS
- Success is feminine and like a woman, if you cringe before her, she will override you —William Faulkner
Faulkner expanded on this simile still further: “So the way to treat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.”
- Success on some men looks like a borrowed coat; it sits on you as though it had been made to order —Edith Wharton
- Triumphs like a trumpet —Wallace Stevens
- Wanted his success acknowledged … like the high school loser who dreams of driving to the class reunion in a custom-made sports car —Jean Thompson
- Winning an Oscar … it’s like getting thirty thousand red roses at one time —Louise Fletcher, from Rex Reed interview
- Wore his success like his health —George Garrett
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Failure
(See alsoDOWNFALL, IRRETRIEVABILITY.)
back to the drawing board An acknowledgment that an enterprise has failed and that one must begin again from scratch, at the initial planning stages. The drawing board in question is the type used by draftsmen, architects, engineers, etc., for blueprints and such schematic designs. A similar phrase is back to square one, by analogy to a games board. Its meaning is the same—“We’ve got to start all over, from the very beginning.”
bite the dust See DEATH.
[one’s] cake is dough One’s project or undertaking has failed, one’s expectations or hopes have come to naught; one never has any luck. A cake which comes out of the oven as dough is clearly a total failure. Shakespeare used this now obsolete proverbial expression in The Taming of the Shrew (V, i):
My cake is dough; but I’ll in among the rest,
Out of hope of all but my share of the feast.
damp squib An enterprise that was to have been a great success, but fizzled out; a lead balloon; a dud. In this British colloquialism, squib is another name for a firecracker. If it is damp, it will not explode as expected. It may fizzle or, in some cases, turn out to be a dud.
flash in the pan An instant but short-lived success; a brief, intense effort that yields no significant results; a failure after an impressive beginning. This expression refers to the occasional misfiring of the old flintlock rifles which caused a flash, or sudden burst of flame, as the gunpowder in the pan burned instead of exploding and discharging a bullet. The expression appears in an 1802 military dictionary edited by Charles James:
Flash in the pan, an explosion of gunpowder without any communication beyond the touch-hole.
go belly up See DEATH.
goose egg A term used figuratively for lack of success in any endeavor; an instance of not scoring or of missing a point, so-called from the slang term for the numeral “0.” As far back as the 14th century, things were compared to goose eggs because of a similarity in shape and size. By the mid-1800s, the term was used in scoring at athletic contests.
At this stage of the game our opponents had fourteen runs—we had five large “goose eggs” as our share. (Wilkes’ Spirit of Times, July 14, 1866)
Goose egg can also be used as a verb.
I now had twenty-two consecutive World Series innings in which I goose-egged the National League. (Saturday Evening Post, February 28, 1948)
go up in smoke To come to naught, to be wasted or futile; to be unsuccessful, to fail or flop; also to end up in smoke and other variants.
One might let him scheme and talk, hoping it might all end in smoke. (Jane Welsh Carlyle, New Letters and Memorials, 1853)
Use of this self-evident expression dates from the 17th century.
lay an egg To flop or bomb, especially when performing before an audience; to fail miserably. During World War I, lay an egg was Air Force terminology for ‘drop a bomb,’ egg probably being associated with bomb because of its similar shape. In addition, egg or goose egg is common slang for ‘zero, cipher,’ also because of their similar shapes. Thus, to lay an egg is ‘to bomb’ (figuratively), or to produce a large zero, i.e., nothing in terms of a favorable response from an audience, supervisor, or other persons evaluating a performance.
You would just as well come wearing a shell if you ever took a job [singing] in a spot like this, that is how big an egg you would lay. (John O’Hara, Pal Joey, 1939)
lead balloon A failure, fiasco, or flop; an attempt to entertain or communicate that fails to elicit a desirable response. This phrase is relatively new, having appeared in print no earlier that the mid-1900s. Lead balloon was originally heard in the verb phrase to go over like a lead balloon, an obvious hyperbolic expression for failing miserably. Today the phrase is used alone substantively or adjectivally. Thus, a joke, plan, etc., can be called a “lead balloon.”
What the Dickens? was a lead balloon literary quiz wherein the experts showed only how little they knew. (Sunday Times, April 19, 1970)
lemon An object of inferior quality; a dud; something that fails to meet expectations. This expression alludes to the lemons painted on the reels of slot machines or “one-armed bandits.” Whenever a lemon appears on one of the reels, regardless of what appears on the other reels, the gambler automatically loses his money. Lemon was in popular use by 1905, less than ten years after slot machines were invented. The expression remains almost ubiquitous, particularly in its most common current application, i.e., in reference to automobiles which experience almost constant mechanical difficulties.
Mechanics are less than delighted to see lines of lemons converging on their service departments. (Saturday Review, June 17, 1972)
See also one-armed bandit, NICKNAMES.
lose one’s shirt To be financially devastated. This common expression implies that a shirt is the last of one’s possessions to be lost in a financial upheaval.
a miss is as good as a mile A proverb implying that it does not matter how close one comes to hitting or attaining a goal, a near miss is still a miss, a near success is still a failure, etc. This expression is probably a corruption of an earlier, more explicit adage, “An inch in a miss is as good as an ell.” (An ell is a unit of measurement; in England, 45 inches.) It has also been suggested that the original expression was “Amis is as good as Amile,” alluding to two of Charlemagne’s soldiers who were both heroes, both martyrs, and both saints—thus, to many people, they were virtually indistinguishable.
He was very near being a poet—but a miss is as good as a mile, and he always fell short of the mark. (Sir Walter Scott, Journal, 1825)
miss the boat To miss out on something by arriving too late, to lose an opportunity or chance; to fail to understand; also to miss the bus. These phrases bring to mind the image of someone arriving at the dock or bus stop just in time to see the boat or bus leaving without him. Although both expressions date from approximately the early part of this century, to miss the boat is by far the more common.
Some firms were missing the boat because their managements were not prepared to be adventurous. (The Times, March, 1973)
my Venus turns out a whelp See REVERSAL.
take a bath To be ruined financially, to lose everything, to go to the cleaners; usually used in reference to a specific financial venture. This figurative American slang use of to take a bath, meaning ‘to be stripped of all one’s possessions,’ plays on one’s physical nakedness when bathing.
washed out To have met with failure or financial ruin; disqualified from social, athletic, or scholastic pursuits. One theory suggests that this phrase originated as an allusion to the former military custom of whitewashing a target after shooting practice, but the connection is difficult to discern. In modern usage, this expression is often applied in an athletic context to one who, because of injury or inferior ability, can no longer compete. In addition, the expression often implies a total depletion of funds.
I would sit in with … hustlers who really knew how to gamble. I always got washed out. (Louis Armstrong, Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans, 1954)
wither on the vine To fail to mature, develop, or reach fruition; to die aborning; to go unused, to be wasted. The expression describes lost opportunity, unrealized ambitions or talents, unfulfilled plans, etc. It often implies negligence or oversight; if such had been properly tended and nourished, they would have blossomed. An obvious antecedent of the expression appeared in the 17th century:
Like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with
languish’t head.
(John Milton, Comus, 1634)
Picturesque Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1980 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
| Noun | 1. |  failure — an act that fails; «his failure to pass the test»
nonaccomplishment, nonachievement — an act that does not achieve its intended goal flunk, failing — failure to reach a minimum required performance; «his failing the course led to his disqualification»; «he got two flunks on his report» naught — complete failure; «all my efforts led to naught» loss — the act of losing someone or something; «everyone expected him to win so his loss was a shock» lapsing, relapse, relapsing, backsliding, reverting, lapse, reversion — a failure to maintain a higher state misplay, error — (baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out when normal play would have sufficed out — (baseball) a failure by a batter or runner to reach a base safely in baseball; «you only get 3 outs per inning» nonconformance, nonconformity — failure to conform to accepted standards of behavior nonpayment, nonremittal, default — act of failing to meet a financial obligation |
| 2. | failure — an event that does not accomplish its intended purpose; «the surprise party was a complete failure»
happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent — an event that happens downfall, ruination, ruin — failure that results in a loss of position or reputation flame-out — a complete or conspicuous failure; «the spectacular flame-out of the company’s stock cost many people their life savings» malfunction — a failure to function normally miscarriage, abortion — failure of a plan misfire, miss — a failure to hit (or meet or find etc) bust, fizzle, flop — a complete failure; «the play was a dismal flop» miscreation, malformation — something abnormal or anomalous equipment failure, breakdown — a cessation of normal operation; «there was a power breakdown» defeat, licking — an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or contest; «it was a narrow defeat»; «the army’s only defeat»; «they suffered a convincing licking» success — an event that accomplishes its intended purpose; «let’s call heads a success and tails a failure»; «the election was a remarkable success for the Whigs» |
|
| 3. | failure — lack of success; «he felt that his entire life had been a failure»; «that year there was a crop failure»
circumstances, luck, destiny, fate, fortune, lot, portion — your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); «whatever my fortune may be»; «deserved a better fate»; «has a happy lot»; «the luck of the Irish»; «a victim of circumstances»; «success that was her portion» bankruptcy — a state of complete lack of some abstract property; «spiritual bankruptcy»; «moral bankruptcy»; «intellectual bankruptcy» bank failure — the inability of a bank to meet its credit obligations crop failure — the failure of crops to produce a marketable surplus dead duck — something doomed to failure; «he finally admitted that the legislation was a dead duck»; «the idea of another TV channel is now a dead duck»; «as theories go, that’s a dead duck» success — a state of prosperity or fame; «he is enjoying great success»; «he does not consider wealth synonymous with success» |
|
| 4. |  failure — a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently
nonstarter, unsuccessful person, loser unfortunate, unfortunate person — a person who suffers misfortune bankrupt, insolvent — someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts flash in the pan — someone who enjoys transient success but then fails dud, flop, washout — someone who is unsuccessful underdog — one at a disadvantage and expected to lose |
|
| 5. | failure — an unexpected omission; «he resented my failure to return his call»; «the mechanic’s failure to check the brakes»
dashing hopes, disappointment — an act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone breach — a failure to perform some promised act or obligation copout — a failure to face some difficulty squarely omission, skip — a mistake resulting from neglect |
|
| 6. |  failure — inability to discharge all your debts as they come due; «the company had to declare bankruptcy»; «fraudulent loans led to the failure of many banks»
bankruptcy insolvency — the lack of financial resources |
|
| 7. | failure — loss of ability to function normally; «kidney failure»
disorder, upset — a physical condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning; «the doctor prescribed some medicine for the disorder»; «everyone gets stomach upsets from time to time» coronary failure, heart failure — inability of the heart to pump enough blood to sustain normal bodily functions kidney failure, renal failure — inability of the kidneys to excrete wastes and to help maintain the electrolyte balance |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
failure
noun
1. lack of success, defeat, collapse, abortion, wreck, frustration, breakdown, overthrow, miscarriage, fiasco, downfall The policy is doomed to failure.
lack of success success, triumph, effectiveness, adequacy
2. catastrophe, disaster, fiasco, let-down, trouble, tragedy, blunder, misfortune, devastation, calamity, mishap The marriage was a failure and they both wanted to be free of it.
3. loser, disappointment, no-good, flop (informal), write-off, incompetent, no-hoper (chiefly Austral.), dud (informal), clinker (slang, chiefly U.S.), black sheep, washout (informal), clunker (informal), dead duck (slang), ne’er-do-well, saddo (Brit. slang), nonstarter I just felt I had been a failure in my personal life.
4. negligence, neglect, deficiency, default, shortcoming, omission, oversight, dereliction, nonperformance, nonobservance, nonsuccess, remissness They didn’t prove his case of a failure of duty.
negligence care, observance
8. bankruptcy, crash, collapse, ruin, folding (informal), closure, winding up, downfall, going under, liquidation, insolvency Business failures rose 16% last month.
bankruptcy fortune, prosperity
Related words
fear kakorraphiaphobia
Quotations
«A failure is a stranger in his own house» [Eric Hoffer The Passionate State of Mind]
«There is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object» [John Keats Endymion]
«There is no failure except in no longer trying» [Elbert Hubbard The Note Book]
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
failure
noun
1. The condition of not achieving the desired end:
2. One that fails completely:
3. A cessation of proper mechanical functions:
4. Nonperformance of what ought to be done:
5. A marked loss of strength or effectiveness:
6. The condition of being financially insolvent:
The American Heritage® Roget’s Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
فَشَلإنْسان فاشِلإنْقِطاع التيّار الكهربائيعَدَم القِيام بِ، رَفْض
nezdarporuchaselhánívýpadekzanedbání
fiaskomanglende evnenederlagsvigtfejl
epäonnistuminen
neuspjeh
elmulasztásmulasztássikertelen ember
mislukkaîur maîuròaî aî e-î bregstrafmagnsleysivanræksla; òaî aî láta e-î ógert
失敗
실패
výpadok
neuspehpolomija
misslyckande
ความล้มเหลว
sự thất bại
failure
[ˈfeɪljəʳ]
A. N
3. (= person) → fracasado/a m/f
Collins Spanish Dictionary — Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
failure
[ˈfeɪljər] n
(= lack of success) [activity, attempt, plan] → échec m; [remedy] → inefficacité f
feelings of failure → un sentiment d’échec
to end in failure → se solder par un échec
(= unsuccessful person) → raté(e) m/f
He’s a failure → C’est un raté.
(= unsuccessful marriage, relationship, event) → échec m
It was a complete failure → Ce fut un échec total.
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
failure
n
(= lack of success) → Misserfolg m; (of campaign, efforts, negotiations, plan, experiment, marriage) → Fehlschlag m, → Scheitern nt; (of undertaking, attempt) → Fehlschlag m; (of application) → Ablehnung f; (in exam, Theat: of play) → Misserfolg m, → Durchfall m; (of business) → Eingehen nt; failure to do something → vergeblicher Versuch, etw zu tun; failure rate (in exams) → Misserfolgsquote f; (of machine) → Fehlerquote f
(= omission, neglect) because of his failure to reply/act → weil er nicht geantwortet/gehandelt hat, weil er es versäumt or unterlassen hat zu antworten/zu handeln; his failure to notice anything → weil er nichts bemerkt hat; failure to pay will result in prosecution → im Nichteinbringungsfall erfolgt Anzeige (form); failure to perform one’s duty → Nichterfüllung f → seiner Pflicht; failure to appear → Nichterscheinen nt (form)
(= breakdown, of generator, engine, electricity, pump, engine) → Ausfall m; (of brakes) → Versagen nt; (of supply, wind) → Ausbleiben nt; heart/kidney/liver failure → Herz-/Nieren-/Leberversagen nt; failure of crops → Missernte f; (complete) → Ernteausfall m
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
fail
(feil) verb
1. to be unsuccessful (in); not to manage (to do something). They failed in their attempt; I failed my exam; I failed to post the letter.
2. to break down or cease to work. The brakes failed.
3. to be insufficient or not enough. His courage failed (him).
4. (in a test, examination etc) to reject (a candidate). The examiner failed half the class.
5. to disappoint. They did not fail him in their support.
ˈfailing noun
a fault or weakness. He may have his failings, but he has always treated his children well.
preposition
if (something) fails or is lacking. Failing his help, we shall have to try something else.
ˈfailure (-jə) noun
1. the state or act of failing. She was upset by her failure in the exam; failure of the electricity supply.
2. an unsuccessful person or thing. He felt he was a failure.
3. inability, refusal etc to do something. his failure to reply.
without fail
definitely or certainly. I shall do it tomorrow without fail.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
failure
→ فَشَل nezdar fiasko Versagen αποτυχία fracaso epäonnistuminen échec neuspjeh fallimento 失敗 실패 mislukking fiasko niepowodzenie fracasso неудача misslyckande ความล้มเหลว başarısızlık sự thất bại 失败
Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009
fail·ure
n. insuficiencia, fallo; omisión; fracaso;
___ neurosis → neurosis de fracaso;
gross ___ → fiasco;
heart ___ → ___ cardíaca, fallo cardíaco;
renal ___ → ___ renal;
respiratory ___ → ___ respiratoria.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
failure
n insuficiencia, fallo, falla, fracaso; adrenal — insuficiencia suprarrenal; congestive heart — insuficiencia cardíaca congestiva; — to thrive desmedro; (ped) retraso del crecimiento, desmedro; heart — insuficiencia cardíaca, fallo cardíaco; heart — with preserved ejection fraction insuficiencia cardíaca con fracción de eyección preservada; liver — insuficiencia hepática, fallo hepático; multisystem organ — falla multiorgánica, fallo multiorgánico; (acute, chronic) renal failure insuficiencia renal (aguda, crónica); respiratory — insuficiencia respiratoria, fallo respiratorio, falla respiratoria; treatment — fracaso terapéutico or del tratamiento
English-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
They write books about success through failure and the power of failure. ❋ Unknown (2011)
As narrator Gina Moynihan slyly points out about her niece’s education, the term «failure to love» is now favored in school over that heavy word «sin.» ❋ Unknown (2011)
You compare THAT issue and the use of the term failure versus what is currently going on with our economy, and what «failure» means on that matter??? ❋ Unknown (2009)
Never the less I think conservatives main failure is in their worship of the law. ❋ Unknown (2009)
The Bush failure is the McCain failure and Obama is going to remind the American people of that at every single opportunity. ❋ Unknown (2008)
Consider the slight but significant difference between these two sentences: «The word failure isn’t in the dictionary» and «The word failure isn’t in his dictionary.» ❋ Unknown (2011)
If I use the term failure for reps, then that means to go until you can’t do anymore. ❋ Unknown (2009)
This butt wipe air america failure is the guy that represents you? ❋ Unknown (2009)
But the response to this failure is always a new bout of hand-wringing, a new set of celebrities pleading for the public to return. ❋ Maxine (2009)
This failure is at the core of every single problem the Church is facing (and will face). ❋ Unknown (2009)
We label failure bad luck, take an antacid, go back to bed or give up the struggle. ❋ Irene Tanner (2011)
Republicans blamed Mr. Obama and what they termed his failure of presidential leadership. ❋ Jonathan Weisman (2011)
He reminded me that a failure is not a person who falls: a failure is a person who does not get back up again. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Your failure is the efforts to celebrate those misguided souls who wanted to secede from the union and break apart the country to be able to keep cheap labor. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Now, that’s what I call a failure of «moral duty». ❋ Unknown (2012)
Fawaz Gerges says another reason for the Hamas/Fatah pact is what he describes as the failure of the peace process, led by the United States, in moving toward a Palestinian state. ❋ Unknown (2011)
[The United Nations] is [a failure]. ❋ Nikki8711 (2010)
That’s the [crappiest] [fingerpainting] I’ve ever seen, [Bobby], you little failure. ❋ BleezeMonkey (2003)
[Sadly], he had enough [back-up] to [cover up] his faults. ❋ Ixx (2005)
[I would] take [14-6] over an [18-1] failure any day. ❋ 1337 |-|4×0|2 (2008)
That [George W. Bush] is [such a] failure! ❋ M Dogg Dizzle Fo Shizzle (2005)
Homer Simpsons: Trying is the first step towards failure.
George W. Bush: I didn’t misfailure the country! Honest! It’s hard work being president! Realleh hard work! Even my [daddeh] says it’s hard work! I don’t get no break on Sundehs too!
Bob [Bluebell]: What a failure and a [jerkwad]. ❋ PaperMachete (2005)
[You’ll never] [learn] from past [failures] if you don’t try. ❋ PaperMachete (2005)
Failure:
«No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.» -Samuel Beckett
[Alfred Pennyworth]: Took quite a fall, didn’t we, [Master Bruce]?
Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. -«[Batman Begins]» ❋ Dusty Cioffi (2008)
you [lived] in [cincinnati]? [FAILURE]! ❋ Katie Mac (2007)
Last night was a failure! At least chocolate, [graham crackers], and [marshmallows] are good [separately] and not heated. ❋ Unmoutonsvp (2006)