Mail vs Fail - What's the difference?
mail | fail |
mail
*1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
*:What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male !
A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
The material conveyed by the postal service.
:
*1823 ,
*:The following are the hours at which the letter-box of this office is closed for making up the several mails', and the hours at which each ' mail is despatched: ¶
*1887 , John Houston Merrill (editor),
*
*:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
(lb) A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
The postal service or system in general.
:
(lb) Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages.
A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.
:(Sir Walter Scott)
(label) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
(label) To send by electronic mail.
* 1983 , "Donn Seeley", Source for 'Grab' '' (on newsgroup ''net.unix-wizards )
* 1998 , "Michael Tomsett", Re: Multiple postings?'' (on newsgroup ''alt.music.manics )
* 2003 , "Chrissy", Re: Send mail with attachment'' (on newsgroup ''microsoft.public.excel.programming )
(label) To contact (a person) by electronic mail.
* 2000 , "Carlton Alton Deltree", Whoever did this sucks...'' (on newsgroup ''alt.comp.virus )
* 2002 , Jessica Mann, The voice from the grave ,
* 2011 , Rose Budworth-Levine, Intimate Encounters ,
(label) Armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together.
(label) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
* (rfdate) John Gay:
A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
* 1653 , Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler :
(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 mail and fail
is that mail is while fail is .English
(wikipedia mail)Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) male, (etyl) . Compare Dutch maal.Noun
The stranger in Liverpool; or, An historical and descriptive view of the town of Liverpool and its environs], Seventh Edition, T. Kaye, [http://books.google.com/books?id=FsQHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA96 page 96,
The American and English Encyclopædia of Law], Volume I, Edward Thompson, [http://books.google.com/books?id=75ENAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121 p.121,
- If he retains the account, and permits several mails to pass without objecting to it, he will be held to have admitted its correctness.
Usage notes
In the United States, mails (plural) can mean "the postal system".Synonyms
* (postal system) post (UK, Ireland, other dialects?)Derived terms
{{der3, accountable mail , air mail , carry the mail , chain mail , e-mail , email , electronic mail , fan mail , hate mail , junk mail , mailbag , mail boat , mail bomb , mailbox , mail call , mail carrier , mail fraud , mailman , mailmerge , mail order , mail plane , mail relay , mailroom , mail slot , mail stop , mail train , mail truck , mails , snail mail , surface mail , voice mail , vote-by-mail , webmail}}Verb
(en verb)- Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.
- There has been a crackdown on non-ARPA use of a local ARPA gateway, so I am reluctant to attempt to mail the file to ARPA sites.
- Since .mp3's are so big (well for me with a 33.6kp/s connection they are anyway) maybe you should offer on your site to mail the file to people who want it, and have them request it, thus saving your web space, your upload time and their download time
- If you mail an attachment from one mail client then it does not matter if the receiver uses a different mail client. The mail you send should be able to be read from their mail client.
- I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.
- I was horrified but my data was OK. Then, it saw it open my e-mail package and start to mail my friends. I turned the power off.
page 189:
- 'Yes, at Quantico. She was so excited by it, she sent all those emails, you remember I told you about it -' 'Yes, she mailed me from there too.'
page 41:
- He mailed me and said he had managed to hack into my email accounts.
Synonyms
* (send through the mail) postDerived terms
{{der3, mailer , mailing}}Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Alternative forms
* mailleNoun
(-)- We strip the lobster of his scarlet mail .
- the moorish-fly; made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake
Derived terms
{{der3, chain mail , plate mail , scale mail , mailed , mailler}}Etymology 3
(etyl) mal, male from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* maile * maill * mailleDerived terms
{{der3, blackmail , mails and duties}}Anagrams
* ----fail
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 .