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Fail vs Wail - What's the difference?

fail | wail |

As nouns the difference between fail and wail

is that fail is while wail is a prolonged cry, usually high-pitched, especially as of grief or anguish.

As a verb wail is

to cry out, as in sorrow or anguish or wail can be (obsolete) to choose; to select.

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

    * * *

    wail

    English

    Etymology 1

    Probably from (etyl) Etymology in Webster's Dictionary

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A prolonged cry, usually high-pitched, especially as of grief or anguish.
  • She let out a loud, doleful wail .
  • Any similar sound as of lamentation; a howl.
  • The wail of snow-dark winter winds.
    A bird's wail in the night.
  • A sound made by emergency vehicle sirens, contrasted with "yelp" which is higher-pitched and faster.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cry out, as in sorrow or anguish.
  • To weep, lament persistently or bitterly.
  • To make a noise like mourning or crying.
  • The wind wailed and the rain streamed down.
  • To lament; to bewail; to grieve over.
  • to wail one's death
    (Shakespeare)
  • (slang, music) To perform with great liveliness and force.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Derived terms
    * wailer * wailingly
    References

    Etymology 2

    Compare Icelandic word for "choice".

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To choose; to select.
  • * Henryson
  • Wailed wine and meats
    (Webster 1913) English terms with homophones