How To Use Fail In A Sentence

  • Not bad for someone who failed to shine at school and feared he would end up in a coalyard. The Sun
  • Before you know it, all the Sandy Clarks and Billy Starks doing the media rounds are back in business until the next time they are given their jotters for failing to meet fans' expectations.
  • Failing to detain him could actually amount to abuse. The Sun
  • ‘Of course, if you fail, and you have been put on that pedestal, it is a lot harder because you have further to fall,’ he said.
  • We failed utterly to convince them.
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  • Another harvest has failed, and international aid agencies warn of the threat of mass starvation.
  • Moreover, see whether the term rendered fail to be the genus of anything at all; for then clearly it also fails to be the genus of the species mentioned. Topics
  • It is the failure of the diaphragmatic pinchcock to open, as in the normal deglutitory cycle, rather than a spasmodic tightness, that obstructs the food. Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery
  • If you think you can work out a containment system where all the defense wonks have failed, have at it.
  • Sometimes, when people die of heart failure, they first suffer angor animi, anguish of the soul. Times, Sunday Times
  • Moreover, don't these choices facilitate a feminist reading of the text, deconstructing sentimentality to expose masculine failings and feminine rebellion?
  • But Arthur's do-gooder streak didn't particularly please other Republicans, and he became one of the few Presidents to fail to win his own party's nomination for re-election.
  • A country which once conquered the commercial world now fails to make the most of the global market place.
  • Her partner deceives her, but she doesn't know it; her children fail, but she is told they succeed; she believes she has the admiration of others, but they laugh at her behind her back.
  • The ensuing grassroots campaign failed to save "embrangle" (to confuse or entangle) and "caliginosity" (dimness, darkness). Jezebel
  • The fuel tanks are self-sealing, with a fuel crossfeed system that provides continuity of supply if one of the fuel circuits fails.
  • The French and Dutch results were punishment for political failure on a grand scale.
  • The kings of the heartogram didn't fail to impress, with a diverse crowd gathered, including everyone from young punks to soccer moms and even a haggard old bat dancing around in lingerie.
  • Restlessness is discontent - and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure. Thomas A. Edison 
  • Defence lawyers routinely accuse victims who failed to make 'vigorous enough' protests, as in fact having consented.
  • He then accused the powers that be of failing to appreciate younger people's culture.
  • If we fail to develop emotional intelligence, or cannot control or restrain our emotions, we will lose our intellectual ability to think, reason and live rationally and intelligently. Dr T.P.Chia 
  • Have you failed to hear a word he's said since he swept you off your perfectly pedicured feet and into the nearest watering hole?
  • Urging fellow MPs to buy ozone-friendly products, she said failure to do so would leave the world without an ozone layer. ANC Daily News Briefing
  • She said: ‘We have a rail station at Malton that fails abominably.’
  • We placed our trust in the hospital which failed in so many ways so many times over. Times, Sunday Times
  • She was accused of failing to keep her promise to work with the aviation industry to improve the choice of destinations.
  • ‘If we fail, send reinforcements…’ Her voice trailed away again, and they saw her shudder.
  • Even the sight of a gibbet, if it assured him that one robber was safely disposed of by justice, never failed to remind him how many remained still unhanged. Rob Roy
  • Even where, for example in an unfair dismissal case, the employment tribunal makes an order that the employee be re-employed by the employer in one way or another, if the employer fails to do so there is no contempt of court.
  • So far, so good, so much more credible—and spoiled only slightly by the blandishment that those that fail should present plans for recapitalization "as swiftly as possible. Is This the End of the Beginning for the Euro Crisis?
  • This company's workhorse is lemna, also known as duckweed-a tiny, aquatic clonal plant that doubles its biomass every 36 hours-and is skilled at making proteins that mammalian cells struggle, and often fail, to produce. News from The Scientist
  • The failure of the monsoon would destroy harvests on which 1000 million people rely.
  • Dishonesty is always one way of climbing the ladder of success, but dishonest intentions and manipulations are more prone to fail. Dr T.P.Chia 
  • Many of us have tried to lose weight and failed miserably for one reason or another. The Vitality Diet
  • Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who dropped out after failing to attract enough money or support.
  • Painter and decorator Geoffrey Jenks was so shocked when he failed a roadside breath test, he felt his Cokes must have been spiked, Kennet magistrates in Devizes heard on Tuesday.
  • Their attempt to bribe the clerk had failed.
  • He neglected to point out that the current policies have failed miserably, in every way.
  • Scepticism failed to save her from scenting danger in the ardent courtship of a rich young Philadelphian.
  • Why it gave me consternation I could not have told; I dare say my inveracities of the day before had failed to digest. The Flower of the Chapdelaines
  • I'm complaining about a life just outside every failed or unpublished writer's reach.
  • Counterinsurgency operations failed to end support for the separatists.
  • Heart failure means that the heart muscle is not pumping well enough to meet the need for oxygen-rich blood.
  • From being an overlooked, conservative fail-safe, it's shot up near the top of the list of summer desirables.
  • Thus America has responded to the enormous challenges the economy faces in the short-term and long-term alike with a complete failure of vision and verve. Andrei Cherny: Individual Age Economics
  • Your mother's will most likely transfers property to the revocable trust, rather than the other way around, in case she failed to transfer something to the trust prior to her death.
  • All men have a moral conscience and want to be good, but often fail to avoid doing what is morally wrong. Dr T.P.Chia 
  • It never failed to be fascinating reading - the replaying of familiar events and familiar data through the specific lens of organized labor.
  • Ultrastructural examination failed to detect viral inclusions, although the tissue exhibited a sizable degree of postmortem autolysis.
  • Prisons overbook for the same reason holiday camps do: to compensate for the inevitable number of detainees who fail to show up for confirmed reservations for one reason or another, or those who escape. Welsh prisons overbooked
  • Their failure to reply to our letter seems to imply a lack of interest.
  • Those labels in a holding pattern failed to generate excitement. Times, Sunday Times
  • White says no one could fail to understand the strategy, but is at pains to point out that making more money does not mean losing more jobs - quite the opposite.
  • In the end, despite these tight controls, the US-backed generals failed to win a majority of the vote, securing a plurality only through frenzied last minute stuffing of the ballot boxes.
  • When the zapper failed to respond, he looked up. Times, Sunday Times
  • whatsit", and then Dr Watson may decide that dumpreg. exe is itself unresponsive so it launches further instance (s) of dumpreg. exe to report the failure (s) of the previous instance (s), and the system suffers a fatal embrace and hardly ever looks at the mouse and keyboard to see me hammering away in desperation. DonationCoder.com Forum
  • In life's earnest battle they only prevail, who daily march onward and never say fail
  • The only element of the production that fails to satisfy is the heavily miked, synthesizer-dominated orchestra, which sounds artificial and dead. A 'King' That Is Full of Aces
  • Were they spiritualized, minimized, or did they fail to find fulfillment only because of the failure of the restoration to materialize?
  • The fizzy drinks tax is doomed to fail, as it has elsewhere. The Sun
  • Things which experience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature, and great and sudden replenishments, fail to perceive the emptying, but are sensible of the replenishment; and so they occasion no pain, but the greatest pleasure, to the mortal part of the soul, as is manifest in the case of perfumes. Timaeus
  • He replied, “I know not; but thou art better able to judge, being acquainted with the ways of thy man, more by token that thou art one of the sharpest-witted of women and past mistress of devices such as devise that whereof fail the wise.” The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
  • The schedule shows the last tender as being at 3 a.m., with a warning that passengers will be responsible for any expense occurred by failing to re-embark before the set time for departure.
  • I would revoke all building codes other than those where a failure of a building can affect neighboring properties: requirements for fire-retardant materials in roofing materials, or inspections to assure the structural integrity of a building taller than its distance from the property line are the sorts of things that come immediately to mind. The Volokh Conspiracy » Does the Supposedly Superior Expertise of Regulators Justify Libertarian Paternalism?
  • It will be no more a failure than any death after a full life is a failure. Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet
  • But these statistics represent neither success nor failure in this complex counterinsurgency. Times, Sunday Times
  • It works in such a way that lower interest rates may fail to boost credit and demand.
  • A series of offensives in early 1918 achieved initial success but ultimately failed to break the Allied line, and by summer, with the Americans coming in droves, the tide of the war had turned irreversibly against the Central Powers. How Wars end
  • The light within the eave was a dusky twilight at the entrance, which failed altogether in the inner recesses. The Antiquary
  • Failure to have the service done may invalidate some extended warranties or service contracts.
  • Chains with more marketing clout, economies of scale and smarter ways of responding to rising costs are edging out smaller chains or those that fail to attract choosier customers. Hamburgers, Fries and a Shakeout
  • Those who fail could be moved to desk jobs. The Sun
  • The 35-year-old was charged with receiving stolen goods but failed to appear in court.
  • I wouldn't care success or failure, for I will only struggle ahead as long as I have been destined to the distance. I wouldn't care the difficulties around, for what I can leave on the earth is only their view of my back since I have been marching toward the horizontal.
  • In the case of marriage, calling SSM discriminatory or segregationist represents either a failure to adequately recognise the sexuality of the individual involved or more perniciously to regard that distinction as immaterial or undeserving of respect. Why are only queer rights on the chopping block?
  • All he failed to do was twirl his shirt around his head. Times, Sunday Times
  • A lengthy police investigation failed to produce any evidence on which the suspect could be convicted.
  • He failed in his attempt to take control of the company.
  • Ask a friend to recommend a doctor or, failing that, ask for a list in your local library.
  • They demonstrate that the orogen likely developed over a Neoproterozoic failed continental rift that was linked to the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia. EurekAlert! - Breaking News
  • The tragedy is that these are doomed to failure because they are in no way, enhancers of resources.
  • The FSA has been trying for years to claim a big scalp as part of a failing effort to stamp out insider trading. Times, Sunday Times
  • Failing to do so imperils his chances by giving us nothing to be excited about, much less to work for and a likely dismal voter turnout.
  • If they fail to reproduce their kind, they have failed in their purpose; they are unconsciously ruled by the philoprogenitive passion; it is their raison d'etre, for it they are fed, clothed, trained, bred. Captivity
  • Safety reports have shown that management failures are responsible in most cases.
  • The new policies fail to accommodate the disabled.
  • Mr Mugabe can not fail to understand the consequence of redistribution of the country's most productive land to subsistence farmers.
  • The second trial also failed - the root crumbled every time he tried to flatten it into a thin disc for frying.
  • It has become axiomatic in this country that children from deprived areas are destined to fail educationally.
  • Fossilized distrust indicates failure at this key democratic task of holding majorities and minorities together.
  • Lawyers acting for the victims - including the parents of twins who suffered kidney failure - are claiming damages for injury and consequential loss. The Sun
  • Note that there were the usual raft of excuses and alibis following the failures.
  • With each subsequent failed request, the epidermoid was able to build greater density into the constantly metamorphosing mask. The Mocking Program
  • Each has written compellingly on this subject, yet each has been unselfishly and unfailingly supportive as we explored terrain that they already knew well. American Grace
  • He had been warned again and again but failed to take action. The Sun
  • He called the PM a failed leader and tried to partly blame him for the fiasco over failure to deport foreign prisoners. The Sun
  • But when it comes time to make that decision, almost 40 per cent of us fail to remove our posteriors from the couch and forfeit our voice in the nation's affairs.
  • The republicans main agenda is to try and make the president fail, consequently our country and us. Obama says opponents reducing health care reform to 'politics'
  • Of course, the failed indicator light was frustrating our efforts to read the indication.
  • In winter it's a wildlife haven; even in the harshest weather it affords a rarely failing food source.
  • A Carlow man was fined an accumulative sum of £150 for failing to have a tachograph on his lorry and having no tax displayed on his vehicle.
  • His main concern, he said, was with the division's failure to deliver orders for unbundled lines correctly first time around. Times, Sunday Times
  • This is an attempt to intimidate and blackguard the prison officers and this is an attempt that will fail.
  • Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency: a hereditary disease that can cause hepatitis and liver failure. Who needs a liver transplant?
  • Instead, we get the "kerplunk" scene we knew we were getting from the end of last issue, Luthor revealing that he's actually kind of a bastard after all, members of Infinity II declaring twice in two pages that it sure is a good thing they still have their powers, and a lost-in-space scene that once again fails to advance that plot. Week 35: That Most Dangerous of Animals
  • I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.
  • Even the rape case against him began falling apart when his alleged victim failed to appear in court.
  • Experts said the problem appeared to be an "uncontained engine failure," which occurs when turbine debris punctures the engine casing and the light cowling that covers the unit. Quantas Airbus Problem: Airline Grounds All A380s After Engine Fire Over Indonesia
  • About flaws, failings, and sins in your life that perhaps only your husband know and see? Christianity Today
  • An equipment failure of accident on the moon could have left the astronauts stranded.
  • In life's earnest battle they only prevail, who daily march onward and never say fail
  • They will rue their failure to score a try when they had a numerical advantage but they still looked good in attack. Times, Sunday Times
  • The two women became friends, and when Jackson's health began to fail, she left her unfinished manuscript in Lotty's hands with instructions about how it was to be arranged.
  • Despite this apparent initial failure, which was openly scorned by China's state media as "performance art", the boxun.com blog site asked again for what it called "strolling protests" against the ruling Communist Party at 2pm on Sunday. Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
  • Mental attitude plays a far more important role in a person's success or failure than mental capacity.
  • In Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell, the "telescreen" compulsorily present in every house is not only a television broadcasting from the outside, but a sort of CCTV camera, observing the people in the room, shouting at them if they fail to meet the standards ordained by the state of which Big Brother is the dictator, always watching them. Telegraph.co.uk: news business sport the Daily Telegraph newspaper Sunday Telegraph
  • Failure to approve them in a vote this week could block the next tranche of €3 billion from international creditors. Times, Sunday Times
  • During his four-month stay in the hospital, Mrs Gearon-Simm claimed cleaners failed to mop floors and clean basins and furniture.
  • Based on several large studies that demonstrated CRT can save lives and prevent hospitalization among heart-failure patients, professional guidelines were developed that recommend its use based in part on a measurement recorded by an electrocardiogram called the QRS duration. Scrutiny for Heart Devices
  • His criticism was over the failure to deport foreign citizens after they had served a jail sentence and the backlog of failed asylum cases. Times, Sunday Times
  • Affected stands either fail to initiate spring growth or green up unevenly in March and then plants decline and eventually die due to infected crowns and roots.
  • It is a speech that cannot fail to thrill the reader for its noble and patriotic eloquence.
  • Preliminary analysis: death from overdose of coldsleep drugs, combined with oxygen starvation and dehydration when cocoon failed to properly deploy. The City Who Fought
  • They had also failed to grasp public unease about the growing pressure on jobs and public services. Times, Sunday Times
  • He says fear of failure keeps him afloat. Times, Sunday Times
  • “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law” is the first book to look unflinchingly at the tragic cases of children who have died because their parents place absolute faith in the power of prayer rather than in the efficacy of modern medicine. Christian Scientists pushing change in Wisconsin prayer law
  • The group claims the airlines neglected their duty of care by failing to take adequate steps to prevent passengers developing economy class syndrome.
  • After the business failed, he had to draw in his horns pretty sharply.
  • A temporary export ban was imposed to allow time for a British buyer to match the price, but the attempt failed. Times, Sunday Times
  • He fails to get the exercise his body needs and is so enwrapped in his world of cyber heroes and villains that he skips meals too.
  • It is a story not in fact of possibility but of one central failure. Times, Sunday Times
  • Thus far, she had failed to show him either skill or cunning.
  • In fact in the recent case before the High Court, the counsellor failed to come up with a clear finding.
  • Because of the UN failure, the Croatian government has now launched military action to reestablish control over part of the occupied areas.
  • The attempt ended in abject failure.
  • However, the developer "faulted" on their agreement with the city and the MEDC by failing to purchase the "transfer site" under the given deadline. Undefined
  • One of them also failed in the accident, but the report did not specify the cause of the "overstress" on those welds. SFGate: Top News Stories
  • Such completely general terms as ‘thing’ ‘entity’ or ‘object’, on Dummett's view, are not genuine sortal terms, since they fail to provide any criteria of identity.
  • Nor could working beside his high-powered wife in the family business have failed to emasculate him. OUT OF THE ASHES
  • Failing that, and still believing that you are a victim in this whole lash-up, I am going to contact a federal agent who has exposed a number of phonies Peter Sumaruck II
  • Failure to produce proof of identity could result in prosecution.
  • At this point in the economic cycle, they are piling up like used tires: debt-sacked college kids who can't get jobs, foreclosed homeowners, failed small-business owners, pink-slipped employees, millions suddenly ejected from the middle class and now a couple Republican candidates who won't be our next president. Occupy Mitt Romney!
  • Hospital readmissions and general practice consultations often occur soon after the diagnosis of heart failure.
  • The temperature limiting device is of the manual reset, trip-free type and has been factory installed to interrupt all ungrounded power supply conductors in the event of thermostat failure.
  • The various elements of the novel fail to cohere.
  • The failure of such simple-minded thinking has also been proven by its total failure for Cuba, which has survived under American sanctions for more than four decades.
  • If he fails to do so, he is held liable, whereas in an action for negligence the legal burden in most cases remains throughout on the plaintiff.
  • The failure of baby boomers to effectively communicate with younger generations of soldiers is driving many captains out of the Army.
  • The reason for the disaster was engine failure, not human error.
  • Lessons of IVF babies mix-up ‘will be learned’ Report pinpoints series of failures at Yorkshire fertility clinic where white couple had mixed-race twins in error
  • The Government had failed to agree on a programme: Baldwin was for protection.
  • I'm desperately trying to recall examples to illustrate any of this, and completely failing.
  • If they fail, the properties of this wonder oil may be known all over the world, but there will be no trees left to supply the market.
  • After a time teaching drama in borstals, prisons and community centres, he suffered two more breakdowns until one day, while sitting on a bus, his persistent angst, dread and fear of failure simply evaporated.
  • I would fail my exams but that the classmates help me with my lesson.
  • What others have failed to duplicate is the appealing shopping experience found in these pleasantly feminine one-stop-shopping specialty stores.
  • Another potential limitation of this study was the dropout rate, with 30% of subjects failing to complete all three treatment arms.
  • I'm thinking my next project will be a hat, although I need to learn more before I try it, because my other attempts have mostly ended in failure, with me taking out all the stiches. Archive 2010-01-01
  • I know I will fail if I bite off more than I can chew.
  • The buyer's failure on getting the export license should not be regarded as force majeure.
  • It wouldn't be the first time officials have failed to act on suspicions about improper behaviour either. Times, Sunday Times
  • Her parents had long since branded her a failure.
  • Those labels in a holding pattern failed to generate excitement. Times, Sunday Times
  • When a government takes control of a failing firm and injects capital but with the plan to divest as soon as practicable, that is a receivership/conservatorship, not socialism. abb1 says: Matthew Yglesias » Americans Don’t Like “Socialism” But Many Democrats Do
  • But he failed to disclose that he had simply transferred his interest in the facility to his wife.
  • Before Gulbransen could feather the prop it too failed and continued to spin out of control.
  • There also are significant differences in the requirements for testing ranges and repetition rate, and pass-fail criteria are much tighter under the new standard.
  • I've come to the conclusion that democracy must fail because the demos is either too ignorant or unintelligent for it to work. Leviathan Montgomery, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
  • After all, failure to do so could leave them as hapless bystanders in a game of musical chairs which may be nearing its climax.
  • But she's the one who always wanted to be a writer, and kept postponing it because she was too chicken-hearted, afraid she would fail. THE SAVING GRACES
  • Congress recently acted to deny trade preferences to countries that fail to meet their legal obligations to end such abusive child labor.
  • But oft while she taketh avisement of flight, ere she taketh her flight, an arrow flieth through her body, and therefore she faileth of her purpose, as Gregory saith. Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the bank with covering up for outrageous bonuses given out at Merrill Lynch as the bank acquired the failed stockbrokerage, and now it was letting the bank off the hook with a chicken-feed fine. Robert Scheer: Letting the Banking Rats Out of the Bag
  • All the time our idiot in his costly clothing with expensive tackle failed to catch a single fish.
  • What I fail to understand is, if sitting in front of the telly getting bladdered and shoving kettle chips down our gullets is so good for the economy, why don't we all do it all the time? Thai buffalo racing gives royal wedding sycophancy a run for its money | Martin Kelner
  • The committee yesterday launched a scathing attack on British business for failing to invest.
  • Even more important, they might fail to notice a menace or threat which if not guarded against might harm or even destroy them, their regime, and possibly even the state as well.
  • If you 'fail or bail' you're out of the game and if you inform the authorities, a grislier fate awaits. Times, Sunday Times
  • Educators blame the lack of interest or knowledge of civics on several things, including grade inflation, overemphasis of test scores, and failure to teach the relevance of the Constitution.
  • I have found myself pacing around trying but failing to find things to do to keep my mind occupied, occasionally popping into the nursery in a fatherly manner to make sure that the useless door hinge has not failed on the tallboy.
  • Both failures came when the seat was being used with its five-point harness; CR's testers found no problems in booster seat mode. Evenflo Maestro car seat recalled after failing Consumer Reports test
  • There has never been an indication that this poppet was prone to failure. Another Launch Delay for STS-119 - NASA Watch
  • The failed satellite being examined is the $400 million U.S. NASA Watch: January 2009 Archives
  • Not being politicians, they can fail to recognise the strength of local feeling.
  • Don't come crawlin to me to feed your sorry butt when the grociery stores fail health inspections and you are starvin while im enjoyin some brunswick stew with deer meat or some rabbit with my home grown salad. Anti-Deer-Hunting Billboard Goes Up in Kansas City
  • Every time I see the papers commentating on an English sporting team they are either praised as the next World Champions or damned as sporting failures.
  • Rumours of a bid last week sent the stock soaring but yesterday investors headed for the exit as confirmation of an approach failed to materialise.
  • Today the burnt-out houses stand as a monument to the failed hope that democratic rule would rescue the delta.
  • Laying over on his long journey south, Grayson found that the failure to decide the location of the future capital, in whatever location, Pennsylvania or the Potomac, “is much reprobated in this City”; much of that opprobrium, naturally, fell on Morris. Robert Morris
  • Each of the slave nodes has a timer programmed with a separate failure mode detection time period.
  • Do you agree with those who contend that capitalism is so individualistic that it fails to protect the collective good?
  • The failure to produce the documents at the initial disclosure stage was a significant breach. Times, Sunday Times
  • Investigators have yet to establish a motive, but a failed robbery attempt is a likely reason, Moen said.
  • Pasgen allowed himself to be divested of three of the amulets he had marked because to fail to chaffer would also mark him as unusual; however, he was growing impatient and finally made as if to throw down the amulets he was holding and walk away. Ill Met By Moonlight
  • The tech giant will trawl anonymous confidential data to spot people at risk of kidney disease, blood poisoning and organ failure. The Sun
  • It would be absurd to blame Aristotle for his conceptual poverty: poverty is a lack, not a failing.
  • They were such important providers of mortgages and business loans that failure would have been catastrophic. Times, Sunday Times
  • Both of my roles as city solicitor and stay-at-home mum have been rewarding but I fail to see why my choices were not both valid. Times, Sunday Times
  • After 17 years of failed development plans, the owner agreed to sell the site for community use.

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