The Crossword Solver found answer to “Bombard, as with snowballs”, 4 letters crossword clue. The Crossword Solver finds answers to American-style crosswords, British-style crosswords, general knowledge crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles.
Answer : FAIL
fail – v
be unable; “I fail to understand your motives”
judge unacceptable; “The teacher failed six students”
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”
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”
get worse; “Her health is declining”
SYNONYMS
flounder, struggle, decline, sink, skid, slip, slump, wane, crash, crumble, miscarry, misfire, go under, implode, self-destruct
EXAMPLES
“I won’t fail again, Dusty, I promise.”
“Now we are certainly on the fuzzy edges, a place where words, often fuzzy in their meanings, begin to fail us.”
“With any luck, his Watcher wouldn’t fail him.”
ETYMOLOGY
c. 1200, “be unsuccessful in accomplishing a purpose;” also “cease to exist or to function, come to an end;” early 13c. as “fail in expectation or performance,” from Old French falir “be lacking, miss, not succeed; run out, come to an end; err, make a mistake; be dying; let down, disappoint” (11c., Modern French faillir), from Vulgar Latin *fallire, from Latin fallere “to trip, cause to fall;” figuratively “to deceive, trick, dupe, cheat, elude; fail, be lacking or defective.” De Vaan traces this to a PIE root meaning “to stumble” (source also of Sanskrit skhalate “to stumble, fail;” Middle Persian škarwidan “to stumble, stagger;” Greek sphallein “to bring or throw down,” sphallomai “to fall;” Armenian sxalem “to stumble, fail”). If so, the Latin sense is a metaphorical shift from “stumble” to “deceive.” Related: Failed; failing.
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