FAIL SAFE

1. Of a device, the capability to fail without detriment to other devices or danger to personnel. ( 188 ) 2. Pertaining to the automatic protection of programs and/or processing systems to maintain safety when a hardware or software failure is detected in a system . [ NIS ] 3. Pertaining to the structuring of a system such that either it cannot fail to accomplish its assigned mission regardless of environmental factors or that the probability of such failure is extremely low.