Clues for the word "FAIL"
We've had 104 crossword clues used for this word, and seen it 217 times in crosswords. It was last seen in Evening Standard Quick crossword on November 21, 2025.
Definition of fail
- v. i. - To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops fail.
- v. i. - To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of.
- v. i. - To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
- v. i. - To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails.
- v. i. - To perish; to die; -- used of a person.
- v. i. - To be found wanting with respect to an action or a duty to be performed, a result to be secured, etc.; to miss; not to fulfill expectation.
- v. i. - To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be baffled or frusrated.
- v. i. - To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
- v. i. - 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.
- v. t. - To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.
- v. t. - To miss of attaining; to lose.
- v. i. - Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail.
- v. i. - Death; decease.
Referring Clues
- Flunk
- Go kaput
- Fall short
- Not work out
- Go bankrupt
- Come to naught
- Come up short
- Go belly up
- Strike out
- Wash out
- Without ___ (religiously)
- Blow it
- Go on the fritz
- Go under
- Miss the mark
- Opposite of pass
- Go down the tubes
- Don't pass
- Give
- Pass alternative
- Pass's opposite
- Not pass
- Bite the dust
- Give out
- Not cut it
- Need repair
- Go out of business
- Stop running, perhaps
- Not make the grade
- Earn no credit
- Fall flat
- Flunk out
- Tank
- Bomb
- Get an F
- Fall short of success
- With 55-Across, 58-/46-Across movie (1964)
- Be unsuccessful
- One may be epic
- Quit working
- Quit working
- Quit working
- Go belly-up
- Not even get a D
- Require a retest, maybe
- Become insolvent
- Need remedial courses
- Require a retest
- Do not pass
- Epic ___
- Conk out
- Stop working
- Comes up short
- Not make the grade?
- Go pfft
- Need to retake in summer school, say
- Get no credit, in a way
- Pass opposite
- Pass or ___
- Poop out
- Go up in smoke
- Get no credit for, in school
- Crash and burn
- Not work
- Get 29-Across
- Do not succeed
- Do not succeed in school
- Disappoint
- Don't succeed in making female suffer
- Fall on one's face
- Alf, straying out of line, will not succeed
- Be unable to achieve one's object
- Maybe a film can't be finished if you go bust
- Suffer a defeat*
- Go wrong
- Get terrible grades
- Don't work
- Flop
- Be unsuccessful in fighting against insurgency leaders, initially
- Get an F in
- Miss the wild part of California
- Be triumphant? No
- Epic ___: disaster
- How to repeat a grade
- Founder
- Omit
- To flunk upsets Alfie no end!
- Prove unsuccessful
- Bomb, as a midterm
- Come to nothing
- Pass-___ (course type)
- Not get above 60, say
- To do so gets Alfie no end upset!
- See 16 Down
- Not succeed
- Not pass, in school
- Hold for another year, say
- Do poorly
- Get an F on
- "Words ___ me!"
- Word in many a YouTube title
- Epic ___ (embarrassing blunder)
- Do horrible in class
- F that comes right after A, B, C and D
Last Seen In
- Evening Standard Quick - November 21, 2025
- Evening Standard Cryptic - October 06, 2025
- Penny Dell Daily - September 20, 2025
- Daily Cryptic - September 15, 2025
- Mirror Daily - August 16, 2025
- New York Times - August 04, 2025
- Mirror Daily - July 24, 2025
- New York Times - June 22, 2025
- Penny Dell Daily - May 25, 2025
- Penny Dell Daily - May 16, 2025
- Evening Standard Easy - May 12, 2025
- Evening Standard Cryptic - March 06, 2025
- Mirror Daily - February 14, 2025
- Penny Dell Daily - February 06, 2025
- Daily American - February 04, 2025
- Penny Dell Daily - January 28, 2025
- Evening Standard Quick - December 24, 2024
- New York Times - October 15, 2024
- Mirror Daily - October 06, 2024
- Evening Standard Cryptic - September 25, 2024
- Family Time - September 15, 2024
- Family Time - July 28, 2024
- USA Today - July 24, 2024
- LA Times - June 09, 2024
- USA Today - March 13, 2024
- USA Today - February 13, 2024
- New York Times - January 16, 2024
- Evening Standard Cryptic - January 03, 2024
- Mirror Daily - November 20, 2023
- Mirror Daily - October 31, 2023
- And in 187 more crossword puzzles...