Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class V. Words Releasing to the Voluntary Powers
Division (I) Individual Volition
Section V. Results of Voluntary Action

732. Failure.

   NOUN:FAILURE, unsuccess, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment or nonfulfilment; dead failure, successlessness; abortion, miscarriage; brutum fulmen [L.] [See Impotence]; labor in vain (inutility) [See Inutility]; no go [colloq.]; inefficacy; inefficaciousness &c. adj.; vain -, ineffectual -, abortive- -attempt, – efforts; flash in the pan, “lame and impotent conclusion” [Othello]; frustration; slip ’twixt cup and lip (disappointment) [See Disappointment].
  BLUNDER (mistake) [See Error]; fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication [obs.]; footfall; false -, wrong- step; faux pas [F.], titubation, bévue [F.], faute [F.], lurch; botchery (want of skill) [See Unskillfulness]; scrape, mess, muddle, botch, fiasco, breakdown; flunk [colloq., U. S.].
  MISHAP (misfortune) [See Adversity]; split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion.
  REPULSE, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture; beating, drubbing; quietus, nonsuit, subjugation; checkmate, stalemate, fool’s mate.
  losing game, affaire flambée [F.]
  FALL, downfall, ruin, perdition; wreck (destruction) [See Destruction]; deathblow; bankruptcy (nonpayment) [See Nonpayment].
  VICTIM, prey; bankrupt; flunker [colloq., U. S.], flunky or flunkey [cant, U. S.].
   VERB:FAIL; be unsuccessful &c. adj.; not succeed [See Success]; make vain efforts &c. n.; do -, labor -, toil- in vain; flunk [colloq., U. S.]; lose one’s labor, take nothing by one’s motion; bring to naught, make nothing of; wash a blackamoor white (impossible) [See Impossibility]; roll the stone of Sisyphus (useless) [See Inutility]; do by halves (not complete) [See Noncompletion]; lose ground (recede) [See Regression]; fall short of [See Shortcoming]; go to -the wall, – the dogs, – pot [colloq.], lick -, bite- the dust; be defeated [See Success]; have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose; not have a leg to stand on; fall a prey to; succumb (submit) [See Submission].
  MISS, – one’s aim, – the mark, – one’s footing, – stays [naut.]; slip, trip, stumble; make a slip &c., n.; make a blunder [See Error], make a mess of, make a botch of; bitch it [obs.], miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, reckon without one’s host; get the wrong -pig by the tail, – sow by the ear [colloq.] &c. (blunder, mismanage) [See Unskillfulness].
  FLOUNDER, falter; limp, halt, hobble, titubate; fall, tumble; lose one’s balance; fall to the ground, fall between two stools; stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock; run -, knock -, dash- one’s head against a stone wall; break one’s back; break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one; get into -trouble, – a mess, – a scrape; come to grief (adversity) [See Adversity].
  COME TO NOTHING, end in smoke; flat out [colloq., U. S.]; fall -to the ground, – through, – dead, – stillborn, – flat; slip through one’s fingers; hang fire, misfire, flash in the pan, collapse; topple down (descent) [See Ascent]; go to wrack and ruin (destruction) [See Destruction].
  GO AMISS, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack; go on -, come off -, turn out -, work- ill; take a wrong turn, take an ugly turn, be all over with, be all up with; explode; dash one’s hopes (disappoint) [See Disappointment]; defeat the purpose; sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
   ADJECTIVE:UNSUCCÉSSFUL, successless, stick-it [Scot.]; failing, tripping &c. v.; at fault; unfortunate [See Adversity].
  ABORTIVE, sterile, impotent, addle, stillborn; fruitless, bootless; ineffectual, ineffective; inefficient (impotent) [See Impotence]; inefficacious; lame, hobbling, décousu [F.]; insufficient [See Insufficiency]; unavailing (useless) [See Inutility]; of no effect.
  STRANDED, aground, grounded, swamped, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited; foiled; defeated [See Success]; struck -, borne -, broken- down; downtrodden; overborne, overwhelmed; all up with [[colloq.]; plowed or ploughed [Eng. Univ. cant], plucked [college cant].
  UNDONE, lost, ruined, broken; bankrupt (not paying) [See Nonpayment]; played out; done up, done for [both colloq.]; deadbeat [colloq.], ruined root and branch, flambé [F.], knocked on the head; destroyed [See Destruction].
  FRUSTRATED, thwarted, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted, dashed; thrown -off one’s balance, – on one’s back, – on one’s beam ends; unhorsed, in a sorry plight; hard hit; stultified, befooled, dished [colloq.], hoist on one’s own petard; victimized, sacrificed.
  wide of the mark (error) [See Error]; out of one’s reckoning (inexpectation) [See Inexpectation]; left in the lurch; thrown away (wasted) [See Waste]; unattained; uncompleted [See Noncompletion].
   ADVERB:UNSUCCESSFULLY &c. adj.; to little or no purpose, in vain, re infectâ [L.].
   QUOTATIONS:

1. The bubble has burst.
2. The game is up.—Cymbeline
3. All is lost.
4. The devil to pay.
5. Parturiunt montes (disappointment) [See Disappointment].
6. Dies infaustus.
7. Tout est perdu hors l’honneur.
8. Trust still to Life, the day is not yet old.—Masefield