The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - failv.

1) not succeed, be unsuccessful, miss, miscarry, misfire, fall short (of) , fall flat, fall through, falter, be (found) lacking or wanting, be defective, be deficient, be or prove inadequate, come to grief or naught or nothing, go wrong, abort, meet with disaster, founder, run aground, Colloq flop, fizzle (out) , go up in smoke, flunk: Guy Fawkes's plot failed utterly. Gloria failed her history examination. 2) let down, disappoint, forsake, desert, abandon, neglect, ignore, slight: I was really counting on Mary, but she failed me. 3) decline, peter out, dwindle, diminish, wane, deteriorate, weaken, decay, fade or die (out or away) , disappear, flag, ebb, sink, languish, give out; gutter, go out: His health is failing. The light failed, leaving us in darkness. 4) go bankrupt, go out of business, go under, go into receivership, become insolvent, close up shop, close up or down, cease operation(s) , Brit go to the wall, US file for Chapter Eleven, Colloq fold (up) , go bust or broke, US drown in red ink: According to the statistics, hundreds of businesses fail every week.