Definition of "fall"

(heading, intransitive) To be moved downwards.

1. To move to a lower position under the effect of gravity.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0091

2. To come down, to drop or descend.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

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

     1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond

3. To come as if by dropping down.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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 ...

     1898, William Le Queux, Whoso Findeth a Wife, page 256

   • 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!

     1904, Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars, page 248

   • 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.

     1971, Henry Raup Wagner, Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

   • 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.

     1981, Dan Kirby, Schreiber's Choice, Ace Books

4. To come to the ground deliberately, to prostrate oneself.  examples

5. To be brought to the ground.  examples

(transitive) To move downwards.

1. (obsolete) To let fall; to drop.  quotations

   Quotations

   • For every tear he falls, a Trojan bleeds.

     1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […]

2. (obsolete) To sink; to depress.

3. (UK, US, dialect, archaic) To fell; to cut down.

(intransitive) To change, often negatively.

1. (copulative, in idiomatic expressions) To become.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • At length they stood at the corner from which they had begun, and it had fallen quite dark, and they were no wiser.

     1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, book the first (Poverty), page 27

   • Shortly afterwards a breeze came up from the N and then it fell calm, […]

     1971, Henry Raup Wagner, Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

2. (intransitive) To collapse; to be overthrown or defeated.  examples

3. (intransitive, formal, euphemistic) To die, especially in battle or by disease.  examples

4. (intransitive) To become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc.).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished.

     1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued

   • 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.

     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

   • 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.

     2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

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

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

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

(transitive, obsolete) To bring forth.  quotations

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

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

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

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

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

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

(intransitive) To be dropped or uttered carelessly.  examples

(intransitive, of a fabric) To hang down (under the influence of gravity).  examples

The act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity.  examples

A reduction in quantity, pitch, etc.  quotations  examples

(chiefly Canada, US, archaic in Britain) 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.  quotations

A loss of greatness or status.  examples

That which falls or cascades.  quotations  examples

(sports) A crucial event or circumstance.

1. (cricket, of a wicket) The action of a batsman being out.  examples

2. (curling) A defect in the ice which causes stones thrown into an area to drift in a given direction.  examples

3. (wrestling) An instance of a wrestler being pinned to the mat.  examples

A hairpiece for women consisting of long strands of hair on a woven backing, intended primarily to cover hair loss.  quotations  examples

(informal, US) Blame or punishment for a failure or misdeed.  examples

(nautical) The part of the rope of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting (usu. plural).  quotations  examples

An old Scots unit of measure equal to six ells.  examples

A short, flexible piece of leather forming part of a bullwhip, placed between the thong and the cracker.  quotations  examples

The lid, on a piano, that covers the keyboard  examples

(nautical) The cry given when a whale is sighted, or harpooned.  examples

(nautical) The chasing of a hunted whale.  examples