Also 7 failer, fayler, failour, faileur, failler, failȝour, faylor. [First in 17th c. in form failer, a. AF. failer, for F. faillir to FAIL; see quot. 1641, and cf. law terms like cesser, trover. Subsequently the ending was variously confused with the suffixes -OR, -OUR, -URE, but the original form did not become obsolete until the end of the century.] The fact of failing.
1. A failing to occur, be performed, or be produced; an omitting to perform something due or required; default.
[1641. Termes de la Ley, 154. Failer de Record est quant un Action est port envers un, & le defendant plede [etc.] … Donques il est dit pur failer de son Record.]
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., I. (ed. 2), 33. There would necessarily follow, not onely a deferring and deniall, but likewise a fayler of Justice in the highest Court of Justice.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1661), 307. Consecrated here in London by the Reverend Fathers of this Church, through failer of a Bishop surviving in that.
1648. Fairfax, etc., Remonstrance, 31. In all mutuall Agreements … how easie it is to finde, or pretend a failer of full performance, and thence to avoid the obligation to th’ Agreement.
1652. Heylin, Cosmogr. On the failer [ed. 1682, faileur] of his Line.
1673. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 65. Haveinge all Titular Arch Bps … comded by Proclaon to depart this Kingdom, & on their Faylor to be proceeded against.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 237. On failure of the descendants of John Stiles himself, the issue of Geoffrey and Lucy Stiles, his parents, is called in.
1832. Southey, History of the Peninsular War, III. 80. Do you swear to preserve to our beloved sovereign, Ferdinand VII., all his dominions, and, in his failure, to his legitimate successors.
1841. Elphinstone, The History of India, I. 67. On the failure of issue … an adopted son succeeds.
1885. Act 48–9 Vict., c. 72 § 5. A failure of justice will take place if the leave [to appeal] is not granted.
† b. A lapse, a slight fault; a failing, infirmity. Obs.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann., V. (1658), 73. Diodorus Siculus, in his second book: whether thorough failler of memory, or false copying, hath here put Cyaxaris for Dejoces.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 270. In regard of the ordinary failures of the Press … the Reader is desired to correct these faults before hee begin.
1689. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 262. An unwilling faylor and error in their proceedings.
1702. The English Theophrastus, 323. This [Envy] is the basest, and most ungenerous of all our Natural Failures, and ought to be corrected as much as possible.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1737), I. viii. 209. He owed his death to … a little inadvertency and failure of memory.
2. The fact of becoming exhausted or running short, giving way under trial, breaking down in health, declining in strength or activity, etc.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, iii. § 1. 152. There then must needs have been an universal failure and want of Springs and Rivers all the Summer-Season, in the colder Climes: and all the Year round in the hotter.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 259. We concluded the failure had been in the Forelock of the bolt.
1841. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life, III. viii. 125–6. You have heard, I suppose, of the sad state of poor Southey; the mind gone—dark depression and utter failure of intellect—overworn. It is very, very sad!
1885. Weekly Notes, 28 March, 67/2. The house had become uninhabitable through the failure of the water-supply.
3. The fact of failing to effect one’s purpose; want of success; an instance of this.
1643. Nethersole, Proj. for Peace (1648), 19. The failer of the timely discovery … happened … through your … default.
1667. Ld. Digby, Elvira, V. 82.
| That I who th’other day, could scarce o’er come | |
| The sense of a slight failour at Madrid. |
1686. J. Goad, Astro-meteorologica, III. iv. 509. All the Exceptions and Failers will lye, upon the account of ♃.
1800. Malone, Dryden, I. II. 505. By his failure in that work he might lose the reputation which he had gained.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. 219. The failure of his foreign hopes threw Edward on the resources of England.
1878. Seeley, Stein, II. 327. We see efforts ending in feebleness and failure.
b. concr. A thing or person that proves unsuccessful.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. This attack was a failure also.
1865. Mill, in Morn. Star, 6 July, If you elect me and I should turn out a failure.
1883. Ch. Times, 9 Nov., 813/2. Lutheranism has been from the very first a conspicuous religious failure.
1889. The Academy, 1 June, 369/1. The general result of efforts directed to this end is the production of … educated failures.
4. The fact of failing in business; bankruptcy, insolvency.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3791/4. Divers Failures have … happened among the Traders in this City.
1709. Steele, The Tatler, No. 5, 21 April, ¶ 5. The Bankers of Geneva were utterly ruined by the Failure of Mr. Bernard.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 25 June, 2/3. Two of these failures have occurred at Milan.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 41. A few years later, 1345, came the failure of the great Italian bankers, the Bardi, at Florence, owing to their heavy loans to England, which were not repaid.
