Room‐temperature delayed failure of C VD ZnSe was tested in 4‐point flexure. Fracture surfaces of specimens exhibiting delayed failure, i.e. failing after some time under a fixed load, showed an intergranular region of fracture, surrounding a mechanically induced flaw. This intergranular region was attributed to slow crack growth and the remaining transgranular fracture to high‐velocity crack propagation. This behavior contrasts with that of specimens failing during loading, i.e. with little or no slow crack growth, which typically exhibited only transgranular failure, as was also observed in bend tests of specimens loaded to failure. Actual times to failure fell between failure‐time predictions based on single‐crystal and polycrystal‐line slow crack growth data, but were much closer to that for the single crystal. Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved