n. A failing; deficiency; default; cessation of supply or total defect: as, the failure of springs or streams; failure of crops.n. Omission; non-performance: as, the failure of a promise or an engagement.n. Decay, or defect from decay: as, the failure of memory or of sight.n. The act of failing, or the state of having failed to accomplish a purpose or attain an object; want of success: as, the failures of life.n. The condition of becoming bankrupt by reason of insolvency; confession of insolvency; a becoming insolvent or bankrupt: as, the failure of a merchant or a bank.n. Neglect.n. Miscarriage.n. Failure, Insolvency, Bankruptcy, Suspension. “Insolvency is a state; failure, an act flowing out of that state; and bankruptcy, an effect of that act” (Crabb). A bank may be insolvent—that is, unable to pay all its debts—without there being a public knowledge of the fact; it is a just law that makes it a criminal offense for a bank officer to receive deposits when he knows his bank to be insolvent. Failure is the popular and common name indicating the cessation of business on account of insolvency, especially if produced by the actual lack of money to meet some demand. Bankruptcy is often in popular use the same as insolvency, but it is more often used of the legal state of those who have surrendered their property to their creditors on account of their insolvency, or of the proceedings in connection therewith: as, he is going through bankruptcy. Suspension, or stoppage of payment, is in the nature of temporary failure, depending upon temporary disabilities not necessarily involving insolvency. Upon converting assets into money or getting an extension of credit, one who has suspended may be able to resume business. Insolvency and bankruptcy, in the legal sense, continue, in respect to past obligations, until the insolvent or bankrupt is formally discharged by the courts.
