failure
(ˈfeɪljʊə(r))
Also 7 failer, fayler, failour, faileur, failler, failȝour, faylor.
[First in 17th c. in form failer, a. AF. failer, for F. faillir to fail; see quot. 1641, and cf. law terms like cesser, trover. Subsequently the ending was variously confused with the suffixes -or, -our, -ure, but the original form did not become obsolete until the end of the century.]
The fact of failing.
1. A failing to occur, be performed, or be produced; an omitting to perform something due or required; default.
| [1641 Termes de la Ley 154 Failer de Record est quant un Action est port envers un, & le defendant plede [etc.]..Donques il est dit pur failer de son Record.] 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. i. (ed. 2) 33 There would necessarily follow..a fayler of Justice in the highest Court of Justice. 1645 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1661) 307 Consecrated here in London by the Reverend Fathers of this Church, through failer of a Bishop surviving in that. 1648 Fairfax Remonstrance 31 How easie it is to finde, or pretend a failer of full performance. 1652 Heylin Cosmogr...On the failer [ed. 1682 faileur] of his Line. 1673 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 65 Haveinge all Titular Arch Bps..comded by Proclaon to depart this Kingdom, & on their Faylor to be proceeded against. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 237 On failure of the descendants of John Stiles himself, the issue of Geoffrey and Lucy Stiles, his parents, is called in. 1832 Southey Hist. Penins. War III. 80 To preserve to..Ferdinand VII, all his dominions, and, in his failure, to his legitimate successors. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 67 On the failure of issue..an adopted son succeeds. 1885 Act 48–9 Vict. c. 72 §5 A failure of justice will take place if the leave [to appeal] is not granted. |
† b. A lapse, a slight fault; a failing, infirmity. Obs.
| a 1656 Ussher Ann. v. (1658) 73 Thorough failler of memory, or false copying. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 270 In regard of the ordinary failures of the Press..the Reader is desired to correct these faults before hee begin. 1689 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 262 An unwilling faylor and error in their proceedings. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 323 This [envy] is the basest and most ungenerous of all our natural failures. a 1716 South Serm. (1737) I. viii. 299 He owed his death to..a little inadvertency and failure of memory. |
2. The fact of becoming exhausted or running short, giving way under trial, breaking down in health, declining in strength or activity, etc.
| 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. iii. §1. 152 There then must needs have been an universal failure and want of Springs and Rivers all the Summer-Season. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §259 We concluded the failure had been in the Forelock of the bolt. 1841 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. viii. 126 The mind gone..utter failure of intellect. 1885 Weekly Notes 28 Mar. 67/2 The house had become uninhabitable through the failure of the water-supply. |
3. The fact of failing to effect one's purpose; want of success; an instance of this.
| 1643 Nethersole Proj. for Peace (1648) 19 The failer of the timely discovery..happened..through your..default. 1667 Ld. Digby Elvira v. 82, I..th'other day, could scarce o'ercome The sense of a slight failour. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies III. iv. 509 All the Exceptions and Failers will lye, upon the account of {jup}. 1800 Malone Dryden I. ii. 505 By his failure in that work he might lose the reputation which he had gained. 1874 Green Short Hist. v. 219 The failure of his foreign hopes threw Edward on the resources of England. 1878 Seeley Stein II. 327 We see efforts ending in feebleness and failure. |
b. concr. A thing or person that proves unsuccessful.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. ii, This attack was a failure also. 1865 Mill in Morn. Star 6 July, If you elect me and I should turn out a failure. 1883 Ch. Times 9 Nov. 813/2 Lutheranism has been from the very first a conspicuous religious failure. 1889 Academy 1 June 369/1 The general result of efforts directed to this end is the production of..educated failures. |
4. The fact of failing in business; bankruptcy, insolvency.
| 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3791/4 Divers Failures have..happened among the Traders in this City. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 5 ¶5 The Bankers of Geneva were utterly ruined by the Failure of Mr. Bernard. 1796 Hull Advertiser 25 June 2/3 Two of these failures have occurred at Milan. 1861 Pattison Ess. (1889) i. 41 A few years later..came the failure of the great Italian bankers. |