different between fail vs baffle
fail
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)
- (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
- (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
- (transitive) To neglect.
- (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.
- (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 […]
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. II, Gospel of Mammonism
- (transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
- (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
- (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.
- (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.
- 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
- (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.
- (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.
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)
- (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
- (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.
Derived terms
Adjective
fail (comparative more fail, superlative most fail)
- (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)
- 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
- file,
- a collection of papers collated and archived together.
- Synonyms: berkas, dokumen
- (computing) an aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.
- a collection of papers collated and archived together.
- 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)
- ring
- bracelet
- wreath
- sty
Declension
Mutation
Malay
Etymology
From English file.
Noun
fail (plural fail-fail)
- file (collection of papers)
- information or a document about someone, something etc.
- (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)
- file (commit papers)
- file (to archive)
- (computing) file (store computer data)
- (with untuk) file (make a formal request)
Old Irish
Verb
fail
- Alternative form of fil
fail From the web:
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- what failed in texas energy
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- what fails a background check
- what fails a car inspection
- what failure means
baffle
English
Alternative forms
- bafful, baffol (both obsolete)
Etymology
Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to French bafouer (“to scorn”) or obsolete French befer (“to mock”), via Scots bauchle (“to disgrace”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?bæfl?/
- Hyphenation: baf?fle
- Rhymes: -æf?l
Verb
baffle (third-person singular simple present baffles, present participle baffling, simple past and past participle baffled)
- (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight. [16th-17th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:
- He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:
- (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone). [16th-18th c.]
- a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)
- pretences to baffle with his goodness
- a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)
- To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex. [from 17th c.]
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:confuse
- 1843, William H. Prescott, The History of the Conquest of Mexico
- computations, so difficult as to have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened nations
- Every abstruse problem, every intricate question will not baffle, discourage or break it [the mind]
- (now rare) To foil; to thwart. [from 17th c.]
- 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture
- the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim
- a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all
- 1915, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales
- So they had to search the world again for a sphinx. And still there was none. But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her.
- 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture
- (intransitive) To struggle in vain. [from 19th c.]
Translations
Derived terms
- bafflegab
Noun
baffle (plural baffles)
- A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.
- An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
- (US, dialect, coal mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.
Descendants
- ? French: baffle
- ? Spanish: bafle
Translations
Further reading
- “baffle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
References
French
Etymology
Borrowed from English baffle.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bafl/
Noun
baffle m or f (plural baffles)
- speaker (audio)
- Synonym: haut-parleur
baffle From the web:
- what baffled means
- what baffles me
- what baffled military leaders
- what baffles you
- what baffle does mean
- bafflement meaning
- what baffle means in spanish
- what's baffle in german
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