unsuccessful[adjective]Synonyms:- useless, failed, fruitless, futile, unavailing, unproductive, vain
- unlucky, hapless, luckless, unfortunate
English Thesaurus: fail, go wrong, not work, be unsuccessful, be a failure, ... [TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲
fail to not succeed – used about people, plans, methods etc:
The plan failed.
They failed to persuade her to change her mind.
This method never fails.go wrong if something you do goes wrong, it fails after starting well:
The experiment went wrong when the chemicals combined to form a poisonous gas.not work if something does not work, it does not do what you want it to do:
The drugs don’t work.
I tried to fix it with glue, but that didn’t work.be unsuccessful /ˌʌnsəkˈsesf
əl◂/ to not have the result you wanted:
His first attempt to get a teaching job was unsuccessful.
The search was unsuccessful.be a failure to be unsuccessful, with the result that you have wasted your efforts:
The government’s 5-year plan to modernize the economy was a complete failure.backfire if a plan or action backfires, it does the opposite of what it was intended to do:
His plan to get attention backfired, and instead of being promoted he lost his job.in vain if you try to do something in vain, you fail to do it:
They tried in vain to save him.
All her efforts had been in vain. [TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲