fall
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
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
form: falling
form: fell
form: fallen
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: Thrown from a cliff, the stone fell 100 feet before hitting the ground.
text: I fell unconscious on the floor.
text: There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:
topics: heading
glosses: To be moved downwards.
To move to a lower position under the effect of gravity.
examples: text: The rain fell at dawn.
text: Her eyes fell on the table, and she advanced into the room wiping her hands on her apron.
ref: 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:
text: The study not only showed IQ variance between children the same parents, but because the authors had the IQ scores of various parents, it demonstrated that parents with higher IQs tended to have more kids, ruling out the dysgenic fertility theory as a driver of falling IQ scores and highlighting the role of environmental factors instead.
ref: 2018 June 13, Rory Smith, “IQ scores are falling and have been for decades, new study finds”, in CNN:
topics: heading
glosses: To be moved downwards.
To come down, to drop or descend.
examples: text: Once or twice a noise fell upon his quick ear, and we halted, he standing revolver in hand in an attitude of defense. Each time, however, we ascertained that we had no occasion for alarm, the noise being made by some animal or bird ...
ref: 1898, William Le Queux, Whoso Findeth a Wife, page 256:
text: And then a sudden calm fell on us like a cloud of fear. There! on the table, lay the Jewel of Seven Stars, shining and sparkling with lurid light, as though each of the seven points of each of the seven stars gleamed through blood!
ref: 1904, Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars, page 248:
text: Shortly afterwards a breeze came up from the N […] dark clouds closing in over everything. At 3 in the afternoon the breeze came up from the S with a thick drizzle. Thus night fell, and thus we passed the rest of it.
ref: 1971, Henry Raup Wagner, Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca
text: The horse wrangler, a tall, bronzed-face man, waved to the wagon driver. The driver laughed. […] The canvas cover rolled up suddenly and a terrible noise fell over the desert.
ref: 1981, Dan Kirby, Schreiber's Choice, Ace Books, →ISBN:
topics: heading
glosses: To be moved downwards.
To come as if by dropping down.
examples: text: He fell to the floor and begged for mercy.
topics: heading
glosses: To be moved downwards.
To come to the ground deliberately, to prostrate oneself.
topics: heading
glosses: To be moved downwards.
To be brought to the ground.
examples: text: For every tear he falls, a Trojan bleeds.
ref: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To move downwards.
To let fall; to drop.
examples: text: to fall the voice
glosses: To move downwards.
To sink; to depress.
examples: text: to fall a tree
glosses: To move downwards.
To fell; to cut down.
examples: text: She has fallen ill.
text: The children fell asleep in the back of the car.
text: When did you first fall in love?
text: fall silent, fall sick, fall pregnant, fall victim to something
text: At length they stood at the corner from which they had begun, and it had fallen quite dark, and they were no wiser.
ref: 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 27:
text: Shortly afterwards a breeze came up from the N and then it fell calm, […]
ref: 1971, Henry Raup Wagner, Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca
glosses: To change, often negatively.
To become.
raw_tags: in idiomatic expressions
examples: text: Rome fell to the Goths in 410 AD.
glosses: To change, often negatively.
To collapse; to be overthrown or defeated.
examples: text: This is a monument to all those who fell in the First World War.
glosses: To change, often negatively.
To die, especially in battle or by disease.
examples: text: The candidate's poll ratings fell abruptly after the banking scandal.
text: The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished.
ref: 1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued:
text: Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
ref: 1835, Sir John Ross, Sir James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Vol.1, pages 284–5:
text: Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: To change, often negatively.
To become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc.).
examples: text: Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday.
text: Last year, Commencement fell on June 3.
text: (Thus D-day fell on June 6 rather than the planned June 5.)
ref: 1978, Dwight David Eisenhower, Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, Doubleday Books:
glosses: To occur (on a certain day of the week, date, or similar); to happen.
examples: text: And so it falls to me to make this important decision.
text: The estate fell to his brother.
text: The kingdom fell into the hands of his rivals.
text: If to her share some female errors fall, / Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.
ref: 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto II:
glosses: To be allotted to; to arrive through chance, fate, or inheritance.
examples: text: Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of your native commodities.
ref: 1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC:
glosses: To diminish; to lessen or lower.
examples: text: to fall lambs
text: The shepherd[…]did[…] fall part-colour'd lambs
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
glosses: To bring forth.
examples: text: As for Calves newly fallen, you must leave them with good Litter of fresh Straw until such qime as the Cows have licked and cleansed them,
ref: 1672, The Office of the Good House-wife, page 27:
text: My intended remarks are on the cords , and wiping dry the newly fallen calf
ref: 1805, John Lawrence, A general treatise on cattle, the ox, the sheep, and the swine, etc, page 100:
text: another writer, adopting a similar opinion, affirms that it results from the lambs not being docked at a sufficiently early period; for "sometimes the ewe, in the ardour of her maternal affection, chews away the tail from her newly-fallen lamb, and none of these are afterwards affectd by the sturdy;
ref: 1869, William Youatt, Sheep: Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases, page 382:
text: The newly fallen lambs are a peculiar sight, as they invariably come spotted or black ; but while the head and legs retain their inky black color, the wool grows out white as with the other Down breeds.
ref: 1892, United States. Bureau of Animal Industry, Special Report on the History and Present Condition of the Sheep Industry of the United States, page 422:
glosses: To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; said of the young of certain animals.
examples: text: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 4:1:
glosses: To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin.
examples: text: to fall into error;  to fall into difficulties
glosses: To become ensnared or entrapped; to be worse off than before.
examples: text: Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 4:5:
text: I have observed of late thy looks are fallen.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:
glosses: To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; said of the face.
examples: text: Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 3:18:
text: […]An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: […] Polybius tells us, the beſt Government is that which conſiſts of three Forms, Regno, Optimatium, & Populi imperio. Which may be fairly Tranſlated, the Kings, Lords and Commons. […] the Romans fell upon this Model purely by chance, (which I take to have been Nature and common Reaſon) but the Spartans by Thought and Deſign.
ref: 1701, [Jonathan Swift], “Chapter I”, in A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, with the Consequences They Had upon Both Those States, London: […] John Nutt […], →OCLC, page 9:
text: 1879, Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology Volume II – Part IV: Ceremonial Institutions
Primitive men […] do not make laws, they fall into customs.
glosses: To happen; to come to pass; to chance or light (upon).
examples: text: After arguing, they fell to blows.
text: They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul.
ref: 1881, Benjamin Jowett (Thucydides)
glosses: To begin with haste, ardour, or vehemence; to rush or hurry.
examples: text: An unguarded expression fell from his lips.
glosses: To be dropped or uttered carelessly.
examples: text: An Empire-style dress has a high waistline – directly under the bust – from which the dress falls all the way to a hem as low as the floor.
glosses: To hang down (under the influence of gravity).
raw_tags: of a fabric
examples: text: We'll fall over to the club tonight.
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: To visit; to go to a place.
Synonyms: sense: move to a lower position under the effect of gravity
word: drop
sense: move to a lower position under the effect of gravity
word: plummet
sense: move to a lower position under the effect of gravity
word: plunge
sense: come down
word: come down
sense: come down
word: descend
sense: come down
word: drop
sense: come to the ground deliberately
word: drop
sense: come to the ground deliberately
word: lower oneself
sense: come to the ground deliberately
word: prostrate oneself
sense: collapse, be overthrown or defeated
word: be beat by
sense: collapse, be overthrown or defeated
word: be defeat by
sense: collapse, be overthrown or defeated
word: be overthrow by
sense: collapse, be overthrown or defeated
word: be smitten by
sense: collapse, be overthrown or defeated
word: be vanquish by
sense: die
word: die
sense: be allotted to
word: be the responsibility of
sense: be allotted to
word: be up to
sense: become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc)
word: dip
sense: become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc)
word: drop
sense: become
word: become
sense: become
word: get
sense: cause (something) to descend to the ground
english: of a tree
translation: of a tree
word: cut down
sense: cause (something) to descend to the ground
word: fell
sense: cause (something) to descend to the ground
word: knock down
sense: cause (something) to descend to the ground
word: knock over
sense: cause (something) to descend to the ground
word: strike down
Coordinate terms: topple
tumble
Derived terms: word: almost fall of one's chair
word: fall off one's chair
word: nearly fall off one's chair
word: atfall
word: befall
word: bottom fall out
word: catch a falling knife
word: downfall
word: easy as falling off a log
word: fair fall
word: fallable
word: fall aboard
word: fall aboard of
word: fall about
word: fall about someone's ears
word: fall about the place
word: fall abreast of
word: fall abroad of
word: fall across
word: fall adown
word: fall afire
word: fall afoul
word: fall afoul of
word: fall after
word: fallage
word: fall all over someone or oneself
word: fall among
word: fall apart
word: fall around
word: fall asleep
word: fall aslope
word: fall astern
word: fall asunder
word: fall at
word: fall at the crest
word: fall at the final hurdle
word: fall at the first fence
word: fall at the first hurdle
word: fall at the last hurdle
word: fall away
word: fall back
word: fall-back
word: fall back, fall edge
word: fall back into
word: fall back on
word: fall back upon
word: fall behind
word: fall behindhand
word: fall below
word: fall between the cracks
word: fall between two stools
word: fall by
word: fall by the wayside
word: fall calm
word: fall classic
word: fall dead
word: fall down
word: fall down on
word: fall due
word: fallen
word: faller
word: fall flat
word: fall flat on one's face
word: fall for
word: fall forth
word: fall foul
word: fall foul of
word: fall foul with
word: fall from
word: fall from grace
word: fall heir
word: fall home
word: fall ill
word: fall in
word: fall in age
word: fall in flesh
word: fall in for
word: falling
word: falling block
word: falling in love
word: falling off the bone
word: falling-out
word: falling out
word: falling together
word: fall in line
word: fall in love
word: fall in lust
word: fall in mold
word: fall in mould
word: fall in one's road
word: fall in one's way
word: fall in somebody's heart
word: fall in someone's heart
word: fall in somebody's mind
word: fall in someone's mind
word: fall into
word: fall into a trap
word: fall into line
word: fall into oneself
word: fall into one's hands
word: fall into one's lap
word: fall into place
word: fall into somebody's heart
word: fall into someone's heart
word: fall into somebody's mind
word: fall into someone's mind
word: fall into someone's hands
word: fall into someone's lap
word: fall into the wrong hands
word: fall in two
word: fall in upon
word: fall in with
word: fall of
word: fall off
word: fall off a cliff
word: fall off a truck
word: fall off one's perch
word: fall off the back of a lorry
word: fall off the back of a truck
word: fall off the cliff
word: fall off the radar
word: fall off the turnip truck
word: fall off the wagon
word: fall of the wall
word: fall on
word: fall on a grenade
word: fall on board
word: fall on deaf ears
word: fall one's crest
word: fall on hard times
word: fall on one's face
word: fall on one's feet
word: fall on one's knees
word: fall on one's sword
word: fall on shore
word: fall on sleep
word: fall on someone's neck
word: fall on stony ground
word: fall on the crest
word: fall open
word: fall out
word: fall out in
word: fall out of
word: fall out of favor
word: fall out of love
word: fall out upon
word: fall out with
word: fall over
word: fall over oneself
word: fall over one's feet
word: fall pregnant
word: fall prey
word: fall prey to
word: fall short
word: fall short of
word: fall short to
word: fall sick
word: fall silent
word: fallstreaks
word: fallstreifen
word: fall through
word: fall through the cracks
word: fall through the floor
word: fall to
word: fall to be
word: fall to bits
word: fall together
word: fall to loggerheads
word: fall to mold
word: fall to mould
word: fall to oneself
word: fall to one's knees
word: fall to one's lot
word: fall to one's share
word: fall to pieces
word: fall to powder
word: fall to someone's lot
word: fall to the ground
word: fall under
word: fall unto
word: fall up
word: fall upon
word: fall upon someone's neck
word: fall victim to
word: fall what can fall
word: fall what will fall
word: fall with
word: fall within
english: to fell a tree; to fell an opponent; as in
translation: to fell a tree; to fell an opponent; as in
word: fell
word: foul fall
word: he who digs a pit for others falls in himself
word: how the mighty have fallen
word: let fall
word: let the chips fall where they may
word: let the dice fall where they may
word: like falling off a log
word: may fall
word: may-fall
word: misfall
word: of-fall
word: overfall
word: refall
word: scales fall from someone's eyes
word: spring forward, fall back
word: tendency of the rate of profit to fall
word: the apple does not fall far from the stem
word: the apple does not fall far from the tree
word: the apple doesn't fall far from the tree
word: the apple never falls far from the tree
word: the apple does not fall far from the trunk
word: the bigger they are, the harder they fall
word: the bigger they come, the harder they fall
word: the curtain falls
word: the nut does not fall far from the tree
word: the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain
word: the sky fell in
word: the sky will fall on your head
word: to-fall
word: trust-falling
word: under-fall
word: united we stand, divided we fall
word: until the wheels fall off