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What is "unsuccessful"

Crossword clues for unsuccessful

unsuccessful
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
unsuccessful
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a successful/unsuccessful coup
▪ The armed forces are too weak to mount a successful coup.
an unsuccessful/a successful attempt
▪ an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government
successful/unsuccessful applicant (=someone who is accepted or not accepted for a job etc)
▪ Successful applicants will be expected to travel extensively.
unsuccessful
▪ Efforts to save the hospital from closure have been unsuccessful.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
largely
▪ Abstract painting did have an equivalent in sculpture but it was largely unsuccessful.
▪ In this last crusade he was largely unsuccessful.
▪ However, he was largely unsuccessful in attempts to broaden the basis of his government's political support.
ultimately
▪ It was, of course, long before her marriage to Charles Bronson and her ultimately unsuccessful battle against cancer.
■ NOUN
applicant
▪ The Schedule also confers a right of appeal on an unsuccessful applicant or objector to the sheriff.
▪ An unsuccessful applicant could appeal to the regional committee.
attempt
▪ On March 4, however, 30 soldiers made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government.
▪ Jack Lemmon, his longtime amateur partner, will be absent after 23 consecutive unsuccessful attempts to make the pro-am cut.
▪ Dark, scorched areas suggested that an unsuccessful attempt had been made to set fire to it.
▪ Candles flickered, incense burned in an unsuccessful attempt to cover the pungent smell of marijuana.
▪ Regrettably the customer's daughter died following unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable donor for a heart-lung transplant.
▪ Last week they went to the Court of Session in an unsuccessful attempt to have Thursday's meeting blocked.
▪ At an earlier hearing the court heard that the police had made unsuccessful attempts to serve the complaint.
▪ No doubt the dead man had returned in an unsuccessful attempt to save his friend from a similar fate.
bid
▪ The move follows an unsuccessful bid by Mr Foster to get the board to reinstate the facility Teesdale farmers regard as essential.
▪ Hilton and Boomtown previously made an unsuccessful bid for a license in Lawrenceburg, Ind.
▪ They danced, and he made an unsuccessful bid on a weekend at Hilton Head.
candidate
▪ It will be much easier to reactivate the application of an unsuccessful candidate who has been let down gently.
▪ Babbitt, 54, a former Governor of Arizona, was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
▪ In 1721 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of astronomy at Oxford.
▪ Chief executive Tom Hughes said the reason for the delay was to inform the unsuccessful candidates before a public announcement was made.
effort
▪ Their unsuccessful efforts included a move to block the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing provisions of environmental laws now on the books.
▪ After several unsuccessful efforts, they would become discouraged and often would begin to spit up.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ unsuccessful negotiations
▪ an unsuccessful artist
▪ I regret to inform you that your application was unsuccessful.
▪ The army made an unsuccessful attempt to end the rebellion.
▪ Their attempts to crush the revolt were unsuccessful.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An unsuccessful interview sounded like a bad accident.
▪ Bills promoted both by backbenchers and ministers to reform the law have been unsuccessful.
▪ He has already made three unsuccessful shots at the presidency.
▪ Mr Palomar's attempt to isolate the wave is a difficult and repeatedly unsuccessful one.
▪ The journalist blinked at her for a few seconds before his tanned face collapsed, reminding Blanche of one of her unsuccessful soufflés.
▪ The Society was substantially unsuccessful in its aim of persuading other charities to adopt the same methods.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unsuccessful

Unsuccessful \Un`suc*cess"ful\, a. Not successful; not producing the desired event; not fortunate; meeting with, or resulting in, failure; unlucky; unhappy. -- Un`suc*cess"ful*ly, adv. -- Un`suc*cess"ful*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
unsuccessful

1610s, from un- (1) "not" + successful (adj.). Related: Unsuccessfully. A noun unsuccess "lack of success" is recorded from 1580s.

Wiktionary
unsuccessful

a. failed, not successful.

WordNet
unsuccessful

  1. adj. not successful; having failed or having an unfavorable outcome [ant: successful]

  2. failing to accomplish an intended result; "an abortive revolt"; "a stillborn plot to assassinate the President" [syn: abortive, stillborn]

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "unsuccessful".

A defeat, by disabling the chief from the performance of his engagements, dissolved the mercenary allegiance of his followers, and left them to consult their own safety by a timely desertion of an unsuccessful cause.

We know that Iraq tested crop-dusting equipment to spray anthrax before the Persian Gulf War, but the effort was unsuccessful.

Aureolus, doubtful of his internal strength, and hopeless of foreign succors already anticipated the fatal consequences of unsuccessful rebellion.

The Author compares the arbitrary actings of the ungovernable mob to the Sultan or Grand Signior, who very seldom fails to sacrifice any of his chief commanders, called Bassas, if they prove unsuccessful in battle.

After Vorn made several more unsuccessful tries, Broud interrupted the lesson.

Examples of modem armored vertebrates are the turtles, armadillos, and pangolins, all relatively unsuccessful.

He was equally unsuccessful with the potman who was just unlocking the doors of the public-house by Horsell Bridge.

Gladstone, but his repugnance to act with Disraeli personally, and his opposition to the protectionist schemes of both that minister and Lord Derby, rendered all negotiations unsuccessful.

The yacht had drifted gradually out of mid-channel shorewards, and after one or two unsuccessful efforts Quarrington at last succeeded in casting anchor.

Three recent attacks on inequalities in the effective voting power of persons residing in different geographical areas were likewise unsuccessful.

Marchese de Montferrat having, after many unsuccessful inquiries, discovered the abode of Julie de Rubine, and wishing in some measure to compensate for the misfortunes he has occasioned, is willing to offer his protection to her, and also to her son, for whom he will hereafter amply provide, on condition that she will take into her care a young female infant, and perform, in every respect, the part of a mother.

I killed Narvo, rescued Elaine, and was back in the bathroom, unconscious, before Shipton arrived home after his unsuccessful attempt to catch me in the act of murdering James Whorter.

But such secret persuasions were no doubt commonly harboured by the unsuccessful, and Mr Thewless attached small significance to them.

But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival.

There is also an unauthenticated story to the effect that Swein Forkbeard waged unsuccessful war against the Swedish king, Eric the Victorious, who occupied parts of Denmark, and that Swein was captured by Slavs and finally ransomed at great cost.