Fail

Fail - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

FAIL, v.i. [L. fallo; Gr. whence; Eng. felony. It seems to be allied to fall, fallow, pale, and many other words.]

1. To become deficient; to be insufficient; to cease to be abundant for supply; or to be entirely wanting. We say, in a dry season, the springs and streams fail, or are failing, before they are entirely exhausted. We say also, the springs failed, when they entirely ceased to flow. Crops fail wholly or partially.

2. To decay; to decline; to sink; to be diminished. We say of a sick person, his strength fails daily.

3. To decline; to decay; to sink; to become weaker; as, the patient fails every hour.

4. To be extinct; to cease; to be entirely wanting; to be no longer produced.

Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Psa 12.

5. To be entirely exhausted; to be wanting; to cease from supply.

Money failed in the land of Egypt. Gen 47.

6. To cease; to perish; to be lost.

Lest the remembrance of his grief should fail.

7. To die.

They shall all fail together. Isa 31.

8. To decay; to decline; as, the sight fails in old age.

9. To become deficient or wanting; as, the heart or the courage fails.

10. To miss; not to produce the effect. the experiment was made with care, but failed, or failed to produce the effect, or failed of the effect.

11. To be deficient in duty; to omit or neglect. the debtor failed to fulfil his promise.

12. To miss; to miscarry; to be frustrated or disappointed. The enemy attacked the fort, but failed in his design, or failed of success.

13. To be neglected; to fall short; not to be executed. the promises of a man of probity seldom fail.

The soul or the spirit fails, when a person is discouraged. The eyes fail, when the desires and expectations are long delayed, and the person is disappointed.

14. To become insolvent or bankrupt. When merchants and traders fail, they are said to become bankrupt. When other men fail, they are said to become insolvent.

FAIL, v.t.

1. To desert; to disappoint; to cease or to neglect or omit to afford aid, supply or strength. it is said, fortune never fails the brave. Our friends sometimes fail us, when we most need them. The aged attempt to walk, when their limbs fail them. In bold enterprises, courage should never fail the hero.

2. to omit; not to perform.

The inventive God, who never fails his part.

3. to be wanting to.

There shall never fail thee a man on the throne. 1 Ki 2.

[In the transitive use of this verb there is really an ellipsis of from or to, or other word. In strictness, the verb is not transitive, and the passive particple is, I believe, never used.]

FAIL, n. Omission; non-performance.

1. He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites. Josh 3.

2. Miscarriage; failure; deficience; want; death.

[In these senses little used.]

fal (kalah, karath; ekleipo): "Fail" is both intransitive, "to fall short," "be wanting," and trans, "to be wanting to."

Of the many words translated "fail" in the Old Testament, kalah is the most frequent, meaning "to be consumed," "ended" (Job 11:20; 17:5; Ps 69:3; 71:9, etc.; Pr 22:8; Isa 15:6, etc.; Jer 14:6; La 2:11; 3:22; 4:17); it is the translation of karath, "to be cut off" (2Sa 3:29, of failure in succession; so 1Ki 2:4, etc.); `adhar, "to marshal," "to be missed" or "lacking" (Isa 34:16 the King James Version; Isa 40:26 the King James Version; Isa 59:15 the King James Version; Ze 3:5); of raphah, "to become faint" or "to make feeble" (De 31:6,8; "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee," Jos 1:5; 1Ch 28:20); of '-abhadh, "to perish," "be lost" (Ps 142:4, "Refuge hath failed me"; Eze 12:22, "Every vision faileth"). Many other Hebrew words are translated "fail," "faileth," for the most part in single instances.

In the New Testament, ekleipo, "to leave out" or "off," is thrice rendered "fail" (Lu 16:9 "when it shall fail"; Lu 22:32, "that thy faith fail not"; Heb 1:12, "Thy years shall not fail"); ekpipto, "to fall off or away" (1Co 13:8, "Charity (the Revised Version (British and American) "love") never faileth"); katargeo, "to make useless" (1Co 13:8 the King James Version, "Whether prophecies, they shall fail"); hustereo, "to be behind," "to lack" (Heb 12:15 the King James Version); apopsucho, "to swoon away," "failing" (Lu 21:26 the King James Version).

The Revised Version (British and American) has "fail," in a new translation of Jer 18:14, for "fall" (La 1:14, margin "stumble"); "his hand fail" for "fallen in decay" (Le 25:35); "I will in no wise fail thee" for "I will never leave thee" (Heb 13:5; compare De 31:6; Jos 1:5); "failed to enter" for "entered not" (Heb 4:6); "faileth" (American Standard Revised Version) for "ceaseth" (Ps 49:8), the English Revised Version "must be let alone for ever"; "failing" for "was darkened" (Lu 23:45); for "fail" (Ezr 4:22), "be slack," "be missing" (Isa 34:16); "falleth short of" (Heb 12:15, maqrgin, "falleth bacf from"); for "failed," "was all spent" (Ge 47:15); "wholly" (Jos 3:16); "fail (in looking)" (La 4:17); for "faileth," "is lacking" (Isa 40:26; 59:15); for "men's hearts failing them" (Lu 21:26), "men fainting," margin "expiring."

W. L. Walker