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Breakdown vs Fail - What's the difference?

breakdown | fail |

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)
  • A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
  • We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
  • A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
  • After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
  • Listing, division or categorization in great detail
  • ''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
  • (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)
  • And now it's time for a breakdown !
  • (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 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.}}
  • (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
  • Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.
  • (US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
  • Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'
  • * 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)
  • 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.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{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.}}
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * (musical technique) degradation

    Derived terms

    * breakdown lorry / breakdown truck * breakdown point * nervous breakdown

    See also

    * break it down

    fail

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To be unsuccessful.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= 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.}}
  • (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
  • There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
  • * 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', 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 […]
  • *
  • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 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.}}
  • (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
  • though that seat of earthly bliss be failed
  • To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
  • The crops failed last year.
  • * Bible, Job xiv. 11
  • as the waters fail from the sea
  • * Shakespeare
  • Till Lionel's issue fails , his should not reign.
  • (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of .
  • * Berke
  • If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to their size.
  • (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
  • * Milton
  • When earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail .
  • (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.
  • A sick man fails .
  • (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
  • * Shakespeare
  • had the king in his last sickness failed
  • (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
  • * Milton
  • Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps / Shall grieve him, if I fail not.
  • 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

    Synonyms

    * (to be unsuccessful) fall on one's face

    Antonyms

    * (to be unsuccessful) succeed

    Derived terms

    * failure * fail-safe

    Noun

  • (uncountable) (label) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.
  • The project was full of fail .
  • (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.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • That is a failure.
  • References

    * * *