Verb

(escap)

To get free, to free oneself.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson

, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}

To avoid (any unpleasant person or thing); to elude, get away from.

* Shakespeare

sailors that escaped the wreck

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=March 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC

, title= Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd , passage=Luiz was Chelsea's stand-out performer, although Ferguson also had a case when he questioned how the £21m defender escaped a red card after the break for a hack at Rooney, with the Brazilian having already been booked.}}

To avoid capture; to get away with something, avoid punishment.

To elude the observation or notice of; to not be seen or remembered by.

* Ludlow

They escaped the search of the enemy.

(computing) To cause (a single character, or all such characters in a string) to be interpreted literally, instead of with any special meaning it would usually have in the same context, often by prefixing with another character.

* 1998 August, (Tim Berners-Lee) et al. , Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax (RFC 2396), page 8:

If the data for a URI component would conflict with the reserved purpose, then the conflicting data must be escaped before forming the URI.

* {{quote-book, year=2002, author=Scott Worley, chapter=Using XML in ASP.NET Applications

, title= Inside ASP.NET , isbn=0735711356, page=214 , passage=Character Data tags allow you to place complex strings as the text of an element—without the need to manually escape the string.}}

* {{quote-book, year=2007, author=Michael Cross, chapter=Code Auditing and Reverse Engineering

, title= Developer's Guide to Web Application Security , isbn=159749061X, page=213 , passage=Therefore, what follows is a list of typical output functions; your job is to determine if any of the functions print out tainted data that has not been passed through some sort of HTML escaping function.}}

(computing) To halt a program or command by pressing a key (such as the "Esc" key) or combination of keys.

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.