- failure
- [[t]fe͟ɪljə(r)[/t]]
♦♦failures1) N-UNCOUNT Failure is a lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity.
This policy is doomed to failure...
Three attempts on the British 200-metre record also ended in failure.
...feelings of failure.
Ant:2) N-COUNT If something is a failure, it is not a success.The marriage was a failure and they both wanted to be free of it...
His six-year transition programme has by no means been a complete failure.
Ant:3) N-COUNT If you say that someone is a failure, you mean that they have not succeeded in a particular activity, or that they are unsuccessful at everything they do.Elgar received many honors and much acclaim and yet he often considered himself a failure...
I just felt I had been a failure in my personal life.
Ant:4) N-UNCOUNT: N to-inf, oft poss N Your failure to do a particular thing is the fact that you do not do it, even though you were expected to do it.She accused the Foreign Office of disgraceful failure to support British citizens arrested overseas...
They see their failure to produce an heir as a curse from God.
5) N-VAR: with supp, oft n N If there is a failure of something, for example a machine or part of the body, it goes wrong and stops working or developing properly.There were also several accidents mainly caused by engine failures on take-off...
He was being treated for kidney failure...
Researchers found an almost total crop failure and a severe shortage of drinking water.
6) N-VAR: with supp If there is a failure of a business or bank, it is no longer able to continue operating.Business failures rose 16% last month.
Syn:7) N-VAR: N of n If you say that someone has a failure of a particular quality or ability, you mean that they do not have enough of it.There is, too, a simple failure of imagination...
He remained on his knees for a long time afterwards, ashamed by his failure of nerve.
English dictionary. 2008.
