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Fail vs Dip - What's the difference?

fail | dip |

As nouns the difference between fail and dip

is that fail is while dip is .

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

    * * *

    dip

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) dippen, from (etyl) dyppan, from (etyl) , Dutch dopen, German taufen.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A lower section of a road or geological feature.
  • There is a dip in the road ahead.
  • Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch.
  • The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a liquid.
  • * Glover
  • the dip of oars in unison
  • A tank or trough where cattle or sheep are immersed in chemicals to kill parasites.
  • A dip stick.
  • A swim, usually a short swim to refresh.
  • I'm going for a dip before breakfast.
  • (colloquial, dated) A pickpocket.
  • * 1906 , Fred L. Boalt, " The Snitcher", McClure's Magazine v.26, p.633
  • The Moocher was a "dip " in a dilettante sort of way, and his particular graft was boarding street-cars with his papers and grabbing women's pocket-books.
  • A sauce for dipping.
  • This onion dip is just scrumptious.
  • (geology) The angle from horizontal of a planar geologic surface, such as a fault line.
  • (archaic) A dipped candle.
  • (Marryat)
    Derived terms
    * lucky dip

    Verb

    (dipp)
  • To lower into a liquid.
  • Dip your biscuit into your tea .
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
  • He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to hear.
  • To immerse oneself; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink.
  • * Coleridge
  • The sun's rim dips ; the stars rush out.
  • (of a value or rate) To decrease slightly.
  • To lower a light's beam.
  • Dip your lights as you meet an oncoming car.
  • To lower (a flag), particularly a national ensign, to a partially hoisted position in order to render or to return a salute. While lowered, the flag is said to be “at the dip.” A flag being carried on a staff may be dipped by leaning it forward at an approximate angle of 45 degrees.
  • “The sailor rushed to the flag hoist to dip the flag in return.”
  • To treat cattle or sheep by immersion in chemical solution.
  • The farmer is going to dip the cattle today.
  • To use a dip stick to check oil level in an engine.
  • To consume snuff by placing a pinch behind the lip or under the tongue so that the active chemical constituents of the snuff may be absorbed into the system for their narcotic effect.
  • To immerse for baptism.
  • (Fuller)
  • * Charles Wheatly, A rational illustration of the Book of Common Prayer
  • during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, there were but very few children dipped in the font.
  • To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten.
  • * Milton
  • A cold shuddering dew / Dips me all o'er.
  • To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair.
  • * Dryden
  • He was dipt in the rebellion of the Commons.
  • To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; often with out .
  • to dip''' water from a boiler; to '''dip out water
  • To perform the action of plunging a dipper, ladle. etc. into a liquid or soft substance and removing a part.
  • * L'Estrange
  • Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot.
  • To engage as a pledge; to mortgage.
  • * Dryden
  • Live on the use and never dip thy lands.
  • To perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body.
  • To incline downward from the plane of the horizon.
  • Strata of rock dip .
    Derived terms
    * dipper * you don't dip your pen in company ink

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A foolish person.
  • Anagrams

    * ----