fall

verb

1. (intransitive)To be moved downwards.

   “Thrown from a cliff, the stone fell 100 feet before hitting the ground.”

   “I fell unconscious on the floor.”

   “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.”

2. (intransitive)To be moved downwards.

   “The rain fell at dawn.”

   “Her eyes fell on the table, and she advanced into the room wiping her hands on her apron.”

   “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.”

3. (intransitive)To be moved downwards.

   “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 ...”

   “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!”

   “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.”

   “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.”

4. (intransitive)To be moved downwards.

   “He fell to the floor and begged for mercy.”

5. (intransitive)To be moved downwards.
6. (obsolete, transitive)To move downwards.

   “For every tear he falls, a Trojan bleeds.”

   “Ghoaſt [of Clarence]. […] / To morrow in the battaile thinke on me, / And fall thy edgeleſſe ſword, diſpaire and die.”

7. (obsolete, transitive)To move downwards.

   “to fall the voice”

8. (UK, US, archaic, dialectal, transitive)To move downwards.

   “to fall a tree”

9. (copulative, intransitive)To change, often negatively.

   “Near-synonyms: become, get, go, turn, come, grow, wax”

   “She has fallen ill.”

   “The children fell asleep in the back of the car.”

   “When did you first fall in love?”

   “fall silent, fall sick, fall pregnant, fall victim to something”

10. (intransitive)To change, often negatively.

    “Rome fell to the Goths in 410 AD.”

11. (euphemistic, formal, intransitive)To change, often negatively.

    “This is a monument to all those who fell in the First World War.”

12. (intransitive)To change, often negatively.

    “The candidate's poll ratings fell abruptly after the banking scandal.”

    “The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

13. To occur (on a certain day of the week, date, or similar); to happen.

    “Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday.”

    “Last year, Commencement fell on June 3.”

    “(Thus D-day fell on June 6 rather than the planned June 5.)”

14. (intransitive)To be allotted to; to arrive through chance, fate, or inheritance.

    “And so it falls to me to make this important decision.”

    “The estate fell to his brother.”

    “The kingdom fell into the hands of his rivals.”

    “If to her share some female errors fall, / Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.”

15. (obsolete, transitive)To diminish; to lessen or lower.

    “Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of your native commodities.”

16. (obsolete, transitive)To bring forth.

    “to fall lambs”

    “The shepherd[…]did[…] fall part-colour'd lambs”

17. (intransitive, obsolete)To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; said of the young of certain animals.

    “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,”

    “My intended remarks are on the cords , and wiping dry the newly fallen calf”

    “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;”

    “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.”

18. (intransitive)To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin.

    “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

19. (intransitive)To become ensnared or entrapped; to be worse off than before.

    “to fall into error;  to fall into difficulties;  to fall into ruin”

20. (intransitive)To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; said of the face.

    “Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.”

    “I have observed of late thy looks are fallen.”

21. (intransitive)To happen; to come to pass; to chance or light (upon).

    “Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.”

    “[…]An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.”

    “[…] 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.”

    “1879, Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology Volume II – Part IV: Ceremonial Institutions Primitive men […] do not make laws, they fall into customs.”

22. (intransitive)To begin with haste, ardour, or vehemence; to rush or hurry.

    “After arguing, they fell to blows.”

    “They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul.”

23. (intransitive)To be dropped or uttered carelessly.

    “An unguarded expression fell from his lips.”

24. (intransitive)To hang down (under the influence of gravity).

    “Her hair, which curled naturally, fell all over her shoulders.”

    “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.”

25. (intransitive, slang)To visit; to go to a place.

    “We'll fall over to the club tonight.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity.

   “the fall of the snow”

   “the fall of the water”

   “the fall of the leaf”

2. (countable, uncountable)A reduction in quantity, pitch, etc.

   ““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”.”

3. (Canada, US, archaic, countable, uncountable)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.

   “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]”

4. (countable, uncountable)A loss of greatness or status.

   “the fall of Rome”

5. (countable, uncountable)That which falls or cascades.

   “A fall of hair tumbled down one side of her body like a veil.”

   “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.”

6. (countable, uncountable)The height of that which falls or cascades.
7. (countable, uncountable)A crucial event or circumstance.
8. (countable, uncountable)A crucial event or circumstance.
9. (countable, uncountable)A crucial event or circumstance.
10. (countable, uncountable)A hairpiece for women consisting of long strands of hair on a woven backing, intended primarily to cover hair loss.

    “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.”

11. (US, countable, informal, uncountable)Blame or punishment for a failure or misdeed.

    “He set up his rival to take the fall.”

12. (countable, uncountable)The part of the rope of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting (usu. plural).

    “Have the goodness to secure the falls of the mizzen halyards.”

    “"[...] with one overhauled fall flying and an iron-bound block capering in the air."”

13. (countable, uncountable)An old Scots unit of measure equal to six ells.
14. (countable, uncountable)A short, flexible piece of leather forming part of a bullwhip, placed between the thong and the cracker.

    “Brooks fitted a new fall to his whip.”

15. (countable, uncountable)The lid, on a piano, that covers the keyboard.
16. The chasing of a hunted whale.

intj

1. The cry given when a whale is sighted, or harpooned.

name

1. The sudden fall of humanity into a state of sin, as brought about by the transgression of Adam and Eve.
2. A surname.