Idiom idiom
failure to launch
Meaning
A young adult's inability to leave home and begin a self-supported life.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He still lives with his parents, a classic case of failure to launch.”
“The parents worried that their son's lack of ambition was a failure to launch, as he refused to look for work.”
“Despite his academic potential, he remained trapped in a cycle of failure to launch, unable to sever his dependence on his family and forge an independent path.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026