Try vs Fail - What's the difference?
try | fail |
To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
* , chapter=22
, title= *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) To divide; to separate.
# To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
#* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:
# (label) To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out .
To test, to work out.
# To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.
# To put to test.
#*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
#* 1922 , , Miss Mapp , :
#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= # To taste, sample, etc.
# To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
# To put on trial.
#* 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I
To experiment, to strive.
# To have or gain knowledge of by experience.
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
# To work on something.
# (label) To do; to fare.
# To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(label) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
To strain; to subject to excessive tests.
An attempt.
An act of tasting or sampling.
(rugby) A score in rugby, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Tom Fordyce
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland
, work=BBC Sport
(UK, dialect, obsolete) A screen, or sieve, for grain.
(American football) a field goal or extra point
(obsolete) Fine, excellent.
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.2:
(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.
In obsolete terms the difference between try and fail
is that try is fine, excellent while fail is to err in judgment; to be mistaken.try
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Replaced native (etyl) (from (etyl) (m)).Verb
(en-verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.}}
Magician’s brain, passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}
- euery feend his busie paines applide, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tride .
- “So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”
David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
- Let the end try the man.
- The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.
- Try the Libyan heat or Scythian cold.
- (Milton)
- Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried .
Usage notes
* (to attempt) This is a catenative verb that takes the to'' infinitive. In the future tense, it can take ''and'' instead of ''to . *: * (to make an experiment) This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . * SeeSynonyms
* (to attempt) attempt, mint, take a run at, take a stab at * sample, tasteDerived terms
* try-hard * try-miter square * try-off * try on * try-on * try out * try-out * try-outs * try square/try-square * try your luck * trying * try one's handNoun
(tries)- I gave unicycling a try but I couldn’t do it .
- I gave sushi a try but I didn’t like it .
- Today I scored my first try .
citation, page= , passage=But two penalties and a drop-goal from Jonny Wilkinson, despite a host of other wayward attempts, plus a late try from Chris Ashton were enough to send a misfiring England through.}}
- (Holland)
Synonyms
* (an attempt) bash, go, stab, whirl * (an act of tasting or sampling) sampling, taste, tasting * (a score in rugby) touchdown (American football )Derived terms
* give a try * old college try * penalty try * worth a tryEtymology 2
Probably from (etyl) .Adjective
(en adjective)- But he her suppliant hands, those hands of gold, / And eke her feete, those feete of silver trye , […] Chopt off […].
Statistics
*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 .
