Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FAIL'URE, n. [fa'ilyur.]

1. A failing; deficience; cessation of a supply, or total defect; as, the failure of springs or streams; failure of rain; failure of crops.
2. Omission; non-performance; as, the failure of a promise; a man's failure in the execution of a trust.
3. Decay, or defect from decay; as, the failure of memory or of sight.
4. A breaking, or becoming insolvent. At the close of a war, the prices of commodities fall, and innumerable failures succeed.
5. A failing; a slight fault. [Little used.]