/fayl"sayf'/ , adj., n., v., fail-safed, fail-safing .
adj.
1. Electronics. pertaining to or noting a mechanism built into a system, as in an early warning system or a nuclear reactor, for insuring safety should the system fail to operate properly.
2. equipped with a secondary system that insures continued operation even if the primary system fails.
3. ( sometimes cap. ) of, pertaining to, or designating a system of coded military controls in which bombers dispatched to a prearranged point as part of a standard operating procedure cannot advance farther without direct orders from a designated authority and cannot have the nuclear warheads they carry armed until they have passed their prearranged point.
4. guaranteed to work; totally reliable: a fail-safe recipe for a cheese soufflé.
n.
5. ( sometimes cap. ) the point beyond which the bombers cannot go without specific instruction; the fail-safe point.
6. something designed to work or function automatically to prevent breakdown of a mechanism, system, or the like.
v.t.
7. to make fail-safe.
[ 1945-50; appar. from v. phrase to fail safe ( ly ) ]