fail vs put down

fail

verb
  • To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations. 

  • Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.) 

  • To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent. 

  • To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits. 

  • To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour. 

  • To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence. 

  • To neglect. 

  • To be unsuccessful. 

  • Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly. 

noun
  • A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action). 

  • A failure (condition of being unsuccessful). 

  • A failing grade in an academic examination. 

  • Poor quality; substandard workmanship. 

  • A failure (something incapable of success). 

  • A piece of turf cut from grassland. 

adj
  • Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way. 

put down

verb
  • To give something as a reason for something else. 

  • To drop someone off, or let them out of a vehicle. 

  • To euthanize (an animal). 

  • To make prices, or taxes, lower. 

  • To pay. 

  • To terminate a call; to hang up. 

  • To add a name to a list. 

  • To insult, belittle, or demean. 

  • To halt, eliminate, stop, or squelch, often by force. 

  • To land. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, down. 

  • To execute (a person), especially extrajudicially. 

  • To write (something). 

  • To place a baby somewhere to sleep. 

  • To cease, temporarily or permanently, reading (a book). 

How often have the words fail and put down occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )