failurenoun
uk/ˈfeɪ.ljər/us/ˈfeɪ.ljɚ/failure noun (NO SUCCESS)
B2 [ C or U ] the fact of someone or something not succeeding:
The meeting was a complete/total failure.
I'm a bit of a failure at making (= I cannot make) cakes.
I feel such a failure (= so unsuccessful).
Their attempt to climb Everest ended in failure.
The whole project was doomed to failure right from the start (= it could never have succeeded).
More examples
- Another crop failure could result in widespread famine.
- The computer failure was due to a glitch caused by lightning.
- The failure of the monsoon would destroy harvests on which 1000 million people rely.
- The words 'Hard disk failure - program aborted' popped up on the screen.
- The probable cause of death was heart failure.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Failures
- a dog's breakfast idiom
- another/the final nail in the coffin idiom
- breakdown
- car crash
- cock-up
- dead duck
- foul-up
- free fall
- hash
- lemon
- loser
- lost cause
- lulu
- mess-up
- parody
- slim pickings
- slush pile
- track record
- train wreck
- turkey
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failure noun (NOT DO)
B2 [ U + to infinitive ] the fact of not doing something that you must do or are expected to do:
His failure to return her phone call made her realize that something was wrong.
Failure to keep the chemical at the right temperature could lead to an explosion.
More examples
- There are serious penalties for failure to comply with the regulations.
- The team blamed injuries and lack of preparation for their failure to win.
- He was disappointed by his failure to secure the top job with the bank.
- I regarded her failure to acknowledge my greeting as a slight.
- The Opposition is making a lot of political capital out of the government's failure to invest in education.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Failures
- a dog's breakfast idiom
- another/the final nail in the coffin idiom
- breakdown
- car crash
- cock-up
- dead duck
- foul-up
- free fall
- hash
- lemon
- loser
- lost cause
- lulu
- mess-up
- parody
- slim pickings
- slush pile
- track record
- train wreck
- turkey
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failure noun (STOP)
B2 [ C or U ] the fact of something not working, or stopping working as well as it should:
He died of heart/liver failure.
The accident was caused by the failure of the reactor's cooling system.
The number of business failures rose steeply last year.
After three crop failures in a row, the people face starvation.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Machines - not functioning
- burn
- cut
- deactivate
- dead
- defunct
- disable
- fritz
- give up the ghost idiom
- go down
- haywire
- on the blink idiom
- out of commission idiom
- seize
- shudder
- shut
- shut (sth) off
- stop
- unusable
- whack
- wrong
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