fall
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: fôl
ipa: /fɔːl/
ipa: /faːl/
ipa: /foːl/
note: fool-fall merger
ipa: /fuːl/
enpr: fôl
ipa: /fɔl/
enpr: fäl
ipa: /fɑl/
ipa: /fo(ː)l/
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: falls
Etymology: Verb from Middle English fallen, from Old English feallan (“to fall, fail, decay, die, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallan (“to fall”), from Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”).
Cognate with West Frisian falle (“to fall”), Low German fallen (“to fall”), Dutch vallen (“to fall”), German fallen (“to fall”), Danish falde (“to fall”), Norwegian Bokmål falle (“to fall”), Norwegian Nynorsk falla (“to fall”), Icelandic falla (“to fall”), Lithuanian pùlti (“to attack, rush”).
Noun from Middle English fal, fall, falle, from Old English feall, ġefeall (“a falling, fall”) and Old English fealle (“trap, snare”), from Proto-Germanic *fallą, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”). Cognate with Dutch val, German Fall (“fall”) and German Falle (“trap, snare”), Danish fald, Swedish fall, Icelandic fall.
Sense of "autumn" is attested by the 1660s in England as a shortening of fall of the leaf (1540s), from the falling of leaves during this season. Along with autumn, it mostly replaced the older name harvest as that name began to be associated strictly with the act of harvesting. Compare spring, which began as a shortening of “spring of the leaf”.
Senses: examples: text: the fall of the snow
text: the fall of the water
text: the fall of the leaf
glosses: The act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity.
examples: text: “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.
ref: 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A reduction in quantity, pitch, etc.
examples: text: A friend has pointed out to me the following remark on this word: "In North America the season in which this [the fall of the leaf] takes place, derives its name from that circumstance, and instead of autumn is universally called the fall." [brackets in original]
ref: 1816, John Pickering, A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States of America:
glosses: The time of the year when the leaves typically fall from the trees; autumn; the season of the year between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.
raw_tags: in Britain
examples: text: the fall of Rome
glosses: A loss of greatness or status.
examples: text: A fall of hair tumbled down one side of her body like a veil.
ref: 2010, Winter Pennington, Witch Wolf:
text: The heat of Daniel's gaze was nearly incendiary as he took in the fall of her hair spilling across her shoulders and down to her elbows.
ref: 2011, Elizabeth Camden, The Lady of Bolton Hill, page 162:
glosses: That which falls or cascades.
glosses: The height of that which falls or cascades.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A crucial event or circumstance.
The action of a batsman being out.
raw_tags: of a wicket
topics: ball-games
curling
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A crucial event or circumstance.
A defect in the ice which causes stones thrown into an area to drift in a given direction.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
wrestling
glosses: A crucial event or circumstance.
An instance of a wrestler being pinned to the mat.
examples: text: Female patients with localized hair loss on the top of scalp could select a fall or a demiwig to camouflage crown and anterior scalp loss.
ref: 2004, Zoe Diana Draelos, Hair Care: An Illustrated Dermatologic Handbook, →ISBN, page 202:
glosses: A hairpiece for women consisting of long strands of hair on a woven backing, intended primarily to cover hair loss.
examples: text: He set up his rival to take the fall.
glosses: Blame or punishment for a failure or misdeed.
examples: text: Have the goodness to secure the falls of the mizzen halyards.
text: "[...] with one overhauled fall flying and an iron-bound block capering in the air."
ref: 1919, Joseph Conrad, Typhoon:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The part of the rope of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting (usu. plural).
glosses: An old Scots unit of measure equal to six ells.
examples: text: Brooks fitted a new fall to his whip.
ref: 1945, Tom Ronan, Strangers on the Ophir, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 113:
glosses: A short, flexible piece of leather forming part of a bullwhip, placed between the thong and the cracker.
glosses: The lid, on a piano, that covers the keyboard.
Synonyms: sense: act of moving to a lower position
word: descent
sense: act of moving to a lower position
word: drop
sense: reduction
word: decrease
sense: reduction
word: dip
sense: reduction
word: drop
sense: reduction
word: lowering
sense: reduction
word: reduction
sense: season
word: autumn
sense: season
word: harvest
sense: season
word: back end
sense: loss of greatness or status
word: downfall
sense: blame, punishment
word: rap
Derived terms: accidental fall
airfall
angle of fall
ashfall
ash fall
backfall
bergfall
be riding for a fall
best-of-three-falls match
block and fall
break a fall
breakfall
break-fall
break one's fall
brothfall
byfall
catfall
center of falls
centre of falls
chainfall
cliff fall
cloudfall
crossfall
darkfall
deadfall
dead-fall
dead fall
dewfall
dew-fall
dirtfall
dogfall
dog-fall
downfall
dustfall
earthfall
evenfall
even-fall
fall-and-rise phenomenon
fall and tackle
fall armyworm
fall-back
fall-block
fall block
fall-blooming
fallboard
fall-board
fall-breaker
fall-bridge
fall cankerworm
Fall Classic
fall-cloud
fall colors
fall dandelion
fall-door
fall duck
fall dwindle disease
fall equinox
fall factor
fallfish
fall-fish
fall foliage
fall-forward
fall from grace
fall front
fall-front desk
fall-guy
fall guy
fall herring
fall-iron door
fallish
fall-leaf
fall-less
fall-like
fall-line
fall line
fall money
fall of day
fall of man
Fall of Man
fall of shot
fall of the leaf
fall of the perch
fall of wicket
fallout
fall overturn
fall-pipe
fall-pippin
fall plate
fallrate
fall rate
fall-rise
Fall River
fall-rope
fall-run fish
falls
Falls-to-Falls Corridor
fallstreak
fall supper
fall-through
falltide
falltime
fall time
fall-trap
fall turnover
fallway
fall-way
fallwear
fall webworm
fall-wind
fall wind
fall-window
fall woman
fall-wood
fally
fall zone
firefall
fish fall
flagfall
fogfall
food fall
footfall
foot-fall
forcefall
free fall
freefall
fruit fall
fussefall
give a fall
grainfall
hailfall
hairfall
icefall
ice-fall
ice fall
infall
iron fall
jawfall
jaw-fall
landfall
lavafall
law-fall
leaffall
leaf-fall
litterfall
mainfall
midfall
mid-fall
misfall
mistfall
moonfall
mousefall
mouse-fall
near-fall
nearfall
nightfall
no fall zone
nutfall
offal
onfall
outfall
overfall
parachute landing fall
penny fall
pinfall
pitfall
planetfall
pratfall
prat-fall
pratt-fall
prefall
pressure-fall center
pressure-fall centre
pride comes before a fall
pride goes before a fall
pride goeth before a fall
proudfall
rainfall
rat-fall
ride for a fall
rises and falls
rockfall
rock fall
roof fall
root-fall
sandfall
shake a fall
shortfall
shout-and-fall
slip and fall
smokefall
snowfall
snow-fall
spatfall
speck falls
starfall
stiff board fall
stonefall
sunfall
Swedish fall
tackle fall
take a fall
take a fall out of
take the fall
technical fall
terminal fall velocity
the Fall of Baghdad
the Fall of Constantinople
the Fall of France
the Fall of Saigon
the Fall of the Roman Empire
the Fall of Rome
threadfall
throughfall
tidefall
toe drain and outfall
tofall
trad fall
trapfall
trap-fall
treefall
trust fall
try a fall
two-out-of-three-falls match
underfall
waterfall
whalefall
whale fall
windfall
withfall
wrestle a fall
wrist-fall
zipper fall
Related terms: falls