fail vs wane

fail

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

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

  • 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. 

adj
  • Unsuccessful; inadequate; unacceptable in some way. 

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. 

wane

verb
  • To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline. 

  • Said of light that dims or diminishes in strength. 

  • Said of a time period that comes to an end. 

  • Said of the Moon as it passes through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible. 

noun
  • A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc. 

  • The end of a period. 

  • The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth. 

  • A child. 

  • A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark. 

  • ]] 

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