different between tantalize vs fail

English

Etymology

From Tantalus (????????) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tænt?la?z/

Verb

tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)

1. (transitive) to tease (someone) by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach
2. (transitive) to bait (someone) by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied

Quotations

• 1880 — John Boyle O'Reilly, Moondyne

  They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.

• 1884 — Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, section 22

  All pleasures palled upon me; all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason, because I could not but compare what I saw in Two Dimensions with what it really was if seen in Three, and could hardly refrain from making my comparisons aloud.

• “It was—simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”

• 1936 — H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Ch. IX

  As we threaded our dim way through the labyrinth with the aid of map and compass ... we were repeatedly tantalized by the sculptured walls along our route. ... If we had had more films, we would certainly have paused briefly to photograph certain bas-reliefs, but time-consuming hand-copying was clearly out of the question.

Related terms

• tantalizing

Translations

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