Antonyms of verb fail

4 of 11 senses of fail

Sense 2
fail, go wrong, miscarry -- (be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably")
       Antonym of succeed (Sense 1)
      => succeed, win, come through, bring home the bacon, deliver the goods -- (attain success or reach a desired goal; "The enterprise succeeded"; "We succeeded in getting tickets to the show"; "she struggled to overcome her handicap and won")

Sense 5
fail -- (be unable; "I fail to understand your motives")
       Antonym of manage (Sense 1)
      => pull off, negociate, bring off, carry off, manage -- (be successful; achieve a goal; "She succeeded in persuading us all"; "I managed to carry the box upstairs"; "She pulled it off, even though we never thought her capable of it"; "The pianist negociated the difficult runs")

Sense 6
fail -- (judge unacceptable; "The teacher failed six students")
       Antonym of pass (Sense 16)
      => pass -- (accept or judge as acceptable; "The teacher passed the student although he was weak")

Sense 7
fail, flunk, bomb, flush it -- (fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?")
       Antonym of pass (Sense 14)
      => pass, make it -- (go successfully through a test or a selection process; "She passed the new Jersey Bar Exam and can practice law now")

Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb fail

11 senses of fail

Sense 1
fail, neglect -- (fail to do something; leave something undone; "She failed to notice that her child was no longer in his crib"; "The secretary failed to call the customer and the company lost the account")

Sense 2
fail, go wrong, miscarry -- (be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably")

Sense 3
fail, betray -- (disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake; "His sense of smell failed him this time"; "His strength finally failed him"; "His children failed him in the crisis")
       => disappoint, let down -- (fail to meet the hopes or expectations of; "Her boyfriend let her down when he did not propose marriage")

Sense 4
fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down -- (stop operating or functioning; "The engine finally went"; "The car died on the road"; "The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town"; "The coffee maker broke"; "The engine failed on the way to town"; "her eyesight went after the accident")
       => change -- (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night")

Sense 5
fail -- (be unable; "I fail to understand your motives")

Sense 6
fail -- (judge unacceptable; "The teacher failed six students")
       => evaluate, pass judgment, judge -- (form a critical opinion of; "I cannot judge some works of modern art"; "How do you evaluate this grant proposal?" "We shouldn't pass judgment on other people")

Sense 7
fail, flunk, bomb, flush it -- (fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?")

Sense 8
fail -- (fall short in what is expected; "She failed in her obligations as a good daughter-in-law"; "We must not fail his obligation to the victims of the Holocaust")

Sense 9
fail -- (become bankrupt or insolvent; fail financially and close; "The toy company went bankrupt after the competition hired cheap Mexican labor"; "A number of banks failed that year")

Sense 10
fail, run out, give out -- (prove insufficient; "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought")

Sense 11
fail -- (get worse; "Her health is declining")
       => worsen, decline -- (grow worse; "Conditions in the slum worsened")