fail meaning
EN
[feɪl] [-eɪl] 
US WFail
- NounPLfailsSUF-ail
- (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
- The project was full of fail.
- (slang) A failure (condition of being unsuccessful).
- (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success).
- A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
- A failing grade in an academic examination.
- A piece of turf cut from grassland.
- (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
- VerbSGfailsPRfailingPT, PPfailed
- (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
- As the world’s drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.
- (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.).
- The truck failed to start.
- (transitive) To neglect.
- The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors.
- (intransitive, of a machine, etc.) To cease to operate correctly.
- After running five minutes, the engine failed.
- (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
- (intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
- I failed in English last year.
- (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
- The professor failed me because I did not complete any of the course assignments.
- (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
- To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
- The crops failed last year.
- (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
- (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
- (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
- A sick man fails.
- (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
- (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
- To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.
- (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
- AdjectiveCOMmore failSUPmost fail
- More Examples
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
- This would be amusing were it not for the fact that, y'know, she was with me yesterday, so your attempt at humor fails on all levels. Like most sperglord humor does save to other sperglords.
- When my dad found out I had failed the exams, he completely lost his temper.
- The game ended in exciting fashion with a failed squeeze.
- Used in the Ending of Sentence
- In this solid account of the calamitous effect of dry utopianism on New York City, Lerner explains how the Prohibition amendment was passed and why its execution failed.
- The ship was accelerating to warp speed, when one of the engines failed.
- He could see the writing on the wall months before the business failed.
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
Definition of fail in English Dictionary
- Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
- Adjectives
- Nouns
- Countable nouns
- Singularia tantum
- Uncountable nouns
- Uncountable nouns
- Countable nouns
- Verbs
- Control verbs
- Ergative verbs
- Intransitive verbs
- Transitive verbs
- Control verbs
- Adjectives
Source: Wiktionary
Grammatically, this word "fail" is an adjective. It's also a noun, more specifically, a countable noun and a singularia tantum. It's also a verb, more specifically, a control verb, an ergative verb, an intransitive verb and a transitive verb.