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To fail; to wane. [Obs.] "Reppening courage yields no foot to foe." Spenser.

Figuratively: Refusal; denial; rejection; failure.

rves to himself appointment to certain benefices. Mental reservation, the withholding, or failing to disclose, something that affects a statement, promise, etc., and which, if disclosed, would materially change its import.

To fail to follow suit when holding a card of the suit led, in violation of the rule of the game; to renege. Hoyle.

Moral rectitude; righteousness. [Obs.] Wyclif. We fail of perfect rightfulness. Sir P. Sidney.

Imperfection; failing; fault. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Without; deprived or destitute of. Rarely used as an English word. "Sans fail." Chaucer. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. Shak.

To fail, of become less; to scantle; as, the wind scants.

To be deficient; to fail. [Obs.] Drayton.

fortunes of the human race, scope is given to the operation of laws which man must always fail to discern the reasons of. I. Taylor. Excuse me if I have given too much scope to the reflections which have arisen in my mind. Burke. An intellectual cultivation of no moderate depth or scope. Hawthorne.

therwise than by an introduction. Farquhar. He tried to scrape acquaintance with her, but failed ignominiously. G. W. Cable.

. Small sand-colored stones, so hard as to scratch glass.Grew. Be mindful, when invention fails., To scratch your head, and bite your nails.Swift.

eeze; to press, as by screws. But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail. Shak.

f the passage of the primary current. -- Secondary evidence, that which is admitted upon failure to obtain the primary or best evidence. -- Secondary fever (Med.), a fever coming on in a disease after the subsidence of the fever with which the disease began, as the fever which attends the outbreak of the eruption in…

Consequence; event; effect; result; as, let the sun cease, fail, or swerve, and the sequel would be ruin.

A mass of iron on which the operation of smelting has failed of its intended effect; -- so called from Shadrach, one of the three Hebrews who came forth unharmed from the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. (See Dan. iii. 26, 27.)

Destitute of expedients, or not using successful expedients; characterized by failure, especially by failure to provide for one's own support, through negligence or incapacity; hence, lazy; improvident; thriftless; as, a shiftless fellow; shiftless management. -- Shift"less*ly, adv. -- Shift"less*ness, n.…

To fail; to decrease. [Obs.]

The failure of a crop, or the like.

d or depressed; to fall slowly, as so the ground, from weakness or from an overburden; to fail in strength; to decline; to decay; to decrease. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. Shak. He sunk down in his chariot. 2 Kings ix. 24. Let not the fire sink or slacken. Mortimer.