different between decline vs fail

English

Etymology

From Middle English declinen, from Old French decliner, from Latin declinare (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”), from de (“down”) + cl?n? (“I bend, I incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *?ley- (English lean).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??kla?n/
• Hyphenation: de?cline
• Rhymes: -a?n

Noun

decline (countable and uncountable, plural declines)

1. Downward movement, fall.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
4. A weakening.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. A reduction or diminution of activity.
6. The act of declining or refusing something.

Antonyms

• incline

Translations

Verb

decline (third-person singular simple present declines, present participle declining, simple past and past participle declined)

1. (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.

2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.

3. (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.

   • in melancholy site, with head declined
4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.

   • You have declin'd his means.

   • He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.

5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.

   a line that declines from straightness

   conduct that declines from sound morals

   • Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
   • 1626, Philip Massinger, The Roman Actor

     Could I decline this dreadful hour?

7. (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender; more specifically, to recite all the different declined forms of a noun.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster (first edition)

     after the first declining of a noun and a verb

8. (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
9. (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.

   The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.

Usage notes

• Decline, refuse, forbear, refrain: Decline is gentler than refuse and carries a connotation that the non-acceptance is an acceptable or anticipated option (decline an invitation) or the result of a considered decision (the judge declined to grant the motion). Refuse has a stronger connotation of rejection, firmness, resistance, or non-compliance. For example, if someone declines to give their name, that suggests they were given a choice and elected not to give their name. If someone refuses to give their name, the connotation is more toward a suggestion that they normally should have given their name and are being intransigent. Forbear or refrain, conversely, suggest choosing not to do something that one might indulge in or be tempted to do (refrain from smoking), with forbear having an added connotation of showing some fortitude in withstanding the temptation (forbear to show anger). Refrain can also be used to refer to a general policy or preference rather than a choice on a single occasion.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• decline in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• decline in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• decline at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Delnice

Portuguese

Verb

decline

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of declinar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of declinar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of declinar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of declinar

Romanian

Verb

decline

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of declina
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of declina

Spanish

Verb

decline

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of declinar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of declinar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of declinar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of declinar.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?l, IPA^(key): /fe?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English failen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman faillir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??l- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *sg??h?el- (“to stumble”). Compare Dutch feilen, falen (“to fail, miss”), German fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fela (“to fail, be wanting, do wrong”), Icelandic feila (“to fail”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).

Verb

fail (third-person singular simple present fails, present participle failing, simple past and past participle failed)

1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
2. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)

3. (transitive) To neglect.

4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.

5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. II, Gospel of Mammonism

     A poor Irish Widow […] went forth with her three children, bare of all resource, to solicit help from the Charitable Establishments of that City. At this Charitable Establishment and then at that she was refused; referred from one to the other, helped by none; — till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her: she sank down in typhus-fever […]
6. (transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.

7. (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
9. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
10. (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
    • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

      If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.

11. (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
12. (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.

13. (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
14. (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
15. 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.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Alternative forms

• faile (obsolete)
• fayle (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (to be unsuccessful): fall on one's face
• (to receive non-passing grades in academic pursuits): flunk (US)

Antonyms

• (to be unsuccessful): succeed

Derived terms

• failure
• fail-safe
• words fail someone

Related terms

• default
• fallacy
• false
• fault

Translations

Noun

fail (countable and uncountable, plural fails)

1. (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.

2. (slang) A failure (condition of being unsuccessful)
3. (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success)
4. A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
5. A failing grade in an academic examination.

Derived terms

Adjective

fail (comparative more fail, superlative most fail)

1. (slang, US) That is a failure.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Compare Scottish Gaelic fàl (“hedge”), Scots faill (“turf”). Attested from the 16th century.

Alternative forms

• feal

Noun

fail (plural fails)

1. A piece of turf cut from grassland.

Derived terms

• fail and divot

References

• fail in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fail in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fail at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• -afil, alif, fila

Indonesian

Etymology

From English file, from Old French fil (“thread”), from Latin filum (“thread”). Compare to Malay fail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?fa?l]
• Hyphenation: fa?il

Noun

fail

1. file,
   1. a collection of papers collated and archived together.

      Synonyms: berkas, dokumen

   2. (computing) an aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.
2. file rack

Further reading

• “fail” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish foil, from Proto-Celtic *wali-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel-. Cognates include Ancient Greek ???? (hélix, “something twisted”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?al?/

Noun

fail f (genitive singular faile, nominative plural faileanna)

1. ring
2. bracelet
3. wreath
4. sty

Declension

Mutation

Malay

Etymology

From English file.

Noun

fail (plural fail-fail)

1. file (collection of papers)
2. information or a document about someone, something etc.
3. (computing) file (aggregation of data on a storage device)

Derived terms

• pemfailan (the process of filing)
• berfail-fail (a lot of files)

Verb

fail (used in the form memfailkan)

1. file (commit papers)
2. file (to archive)
3. (computing) file (store computer data)
4. (with untuk) file (make a formal request)

Old Irish

Verb

fail

1. Alternative form of fil