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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