Breakdown vs Fail - What's the difference?
breakdown | fail |
A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
Listing, division or categorization in great detail
(chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.
A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.
* 1992 , En Vogue, My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) (song)
(sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=September 18
, author=Ben Dirs
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia
, work=BBC Sport
(US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.
(US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.
* (rfdate) New Eng. Tales
(US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
* 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)
*
*
* {{quote-book, ???, title=Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, page=102,
books.google.com/books?isbn=1592403778, author=Stephen Davis, year=2008, passage=Izzy lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.}}
*
*
(label) To be unsuccessful.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
(label) To neglect.
To cease to operate correctly.
(label) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
* Bible, 1 Kings ii. 4
* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 3, ch. II, ''Gospel of Mammonism
*
, title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=2 (label) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
(label) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.
To miss attaining; to lose.
* Milton
To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
* Bible, Job xiv. 11
* Shakespeare
(archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of .
* Berke
(archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
* Milton
(archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
(obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
* Milton
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.
(uncountable) (label) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
(label) A failure (condition of being unsuccessful)
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.
As nouns the difference between breakdown and fail
is that breakdown is a failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed while fail is .breakdown
English
Noun
(en noun)- We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
- After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
- ''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
- And now it's time for a breakdown !
citation, page= , passage=Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.}}
- Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.
- Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'
- Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned breakdown . A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet - these were the instruments.
Synonyms
* (musical technique) degradationDerived terms
* breakdown lorry / breakdown truck * breakdown point * nervous breakdownSee also
* break it downfail
English
Verb
(en verb)A new prescription, passage=As the world’s drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.}}
- There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
- 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 […]
citation, passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.}}
- though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
- The crops failed last year.
- as the waters fail from the sea
- Till Lionel's issue fails , his should not reign.
- If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to their size.
- When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail .
- A sick man fails .
- had the king in his last sickness failed
- Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (to be unsuccessful) fall on one's faceAntonyms
* (to be unsuccessful) succeedDerived terms
* failure * fail-safeNoun
- The project was full of fail .