fall 
(6) To perish ; die away ; become disused : as, the custom 
fell nff. (c) To become depreciated ; decline from former 
excellence ; become less valuable or interesting ; dei.Tru8<- : 
as, the subscriptions fall off; the public interest \tfaUing 
t>tt. 
It I miRht venture to suggest anything, it is that the in- 
terest rather falls itfin the fifth (act). 
Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 
Physical debility was the main cause of this lyrical fall- 
ing of. Stedman, Viet. Poets, p. 143. 
(rf) Naut., to deviate from the course to which the head of 
the ship was before directed ; fall to leeward. 
Having killed the captain of the Turkish ship and bro- 
ken his tiller, the Turk took in his own ensign and fell off 
from him. IViitthrop, Hist. New England, II. 150. 
To fall on or upon, () [On, adv.] (1) To begin sud- 
denly and vigorously. 
l''<tll on, and try the appetite to eat. Dryden. 
(2) To begin an attack. 
Therefore/aK on, or else be gone, 
And yield to us the day. 
Robin Hood's Delight (Child's Ballads, V. 215). 
(6) [On, prep.] (1) To assault ; assail. 
Others of their company, seeing the business was over- 
thrown, to make amends for their former fact, turned 
and fell on their consorts. 
/(. Knox (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 376). 
I saw three bandits by the rock 
Waiting bo fall on you, and heard them boast 
That they would slay you. Tennyson, Geraint. 
(2) To come upon, usually with some degree of sudden- 
ness and unexpectedness ; descend upon. 
B'ear and dread shall fall upon them. Ex. xv. 16. 
.My blood an even tenor kept, 
Till OH mine ear this message falls, 
That in Vienna's fatal walls 
God's flnger touch'd him, and he slept. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, Ixxxv. 
(3) To light upon ; come upon ; discover. 
The Romans fell on this model by chance. Swift. 
To fall on one's feet, to come well out of any adventure 
or predicament ; be fortunately placed or provided for : 
from the proverbial ability of the cat always to come down 
on its feet in falling : as, that is a lucky fellow, he is sure 
to fall on his feet. 
Mr. King, who was put in good-humor by falling on his 
feet, as it were, in such agreeable company, amused him- 
self by studying the guests. 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 6. 
To fall out. (a) To quarrel ; begin to wrangle ; become 
estranged. 
Master Wellbred's elder brother and I are fallen out 
exceedingly. B. Jonxon, Every Man in his Humour, 1. 4. 
Rubeiiius Celer would needs have it engraven on his 
tomb he had led his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty- 
three years eight months, and never fell out. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 450. 
Vfefell out, my wife and I, 
O vie fell out, I know not why, 
And kiss'd again with tears. 
Tennyson, Princess, i. 
(b) To happen ; befall ; chance. 
It fell out on a day, the king 
Brought the queen with him home. 
The Laidley Worm of Spindleston-heuah (Child's 
[Ballads, I. 282). 
Even so It fell out to him as he foretold. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 343. 
(c) Naut., to fall into the wrong place: the opposite of to 
fall home. to fall over, (a) (Over, adv.] (1) To revolt; 
desert from one side to another. [Archaic.] 
And dost thou now fall over to my foes? 
Shah., K. John, iii. 1. 
(2) To become overturned : as, the wall fell oi<er. (b) [Over, 
prep.) To fall beyond : as, the ball/?(( over the line. To 
fall snort, to be deficient ; fail to come up to a standard 
or requirement : as, the corn falls short; to fall short in 
duty. 
The Italians fall as short of the French in this particular 
[gardens] as they excel them in their palaces. 
Addison, Remarks on Italy (ed. Bonn), I. 878. 
It [the great cedar] has a fine smell, but not so fragrant 
as the juniper of America, which is commonly called Ce- 
dar; and it also falls short of it in beauty. 
Pocoeke, Description of the East, II. 1. 105. 
To fall through, to fail ; come to nothing : as, the plan 
fell through. [Colloq.] To fall to. (a) [To, adv.] (1) 
To drop into a fixed position, as by swinging ; close. 
Just here the front gate is heard falling to. 
W. M. Baker, New Timothy, p. 37. 
(2) To begin eagerly or with vigor. 
Fall to, with eager joy, on homely food. 
Dryden, tr. of Juvenal's Satires 
Come, Sir, fall to then ; you see my little supper is al- 
ways ready when I come home, and I'll make no stranger 
of you. Cotton, in Walton's Angler, ii. 234. 
(b) [To, prep.] To go about or engage in energetically; 
apply one's self to ; have recourse to with ardor or vehe- 
mence: as, they fell to blows. 
Then I fell to defence with a frike wille, 
My-seluyn to sane, and socour my pepull. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 13204. 
So they fell to it hard and sore. 
Jiobin Hood's Delight (Child's Ballads, V. 214). 
I thought we should have had a great deal of talk by 
this time. Well, if yon will, we will fall to it now. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 148. 
To fall together by the ears. See eari. To fall to 
the ground. See ground^. To fall under, to num- 
2127 
under or within the limits nf ; become subject t" ; In' 
ranged or rrrknnt-'I under: ;ts. they fell under the juris- 
diction of tin' emperor; this point did nut fall under the 
oognlzancfl of the court; these substances fall under a 
dinerent class or order. 
They fell mulrr the punishment of admonition and other 
heavy penalties. J. Adams, Works, V. 156. 
To fall upon. () To attack. See to fall on (b\ 
A knight of Arthur's court, who laid his lance 
In rest, and made as if to fall upon him. 
Tennyson, Geraint. 
(o) To attempt ; make trial of ; have recourse to. 
Every way is fallen upon to degrade and humble them. 
Brougham. 
To fall witht. Same as to fall in u-ith (a). 
They made them stear a course betweene ye southwest 
& y norwest, that they might /oU with some land. 
Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 217. 
=Syn. Attack, Set upon, Fall upon, etc. See assail. 
II. trans. If. To bring down ; allow or cause 
to drop. 
For every tear he falls a Trojan bleeds. 
Shak., Lucrece, 1. 1551. 
The common executioner . . . 
Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck, 
But first begs pardon. Shak., As you Like it, iii. 5. 
2. To give a fall to ; throw or otherwise unseat, 
as a rider. [Colloq.J 
The servant boy, . . . by way of apology, . . . told how 
the animal [a horse] had failed him three times. 
W. Colton, Ship and Shore, p. 139. 
3. To strike, throw, or cut down; specifically, to 
fell or chop down: as, to fall a tree. [Obsolete 
or colloq.] 
Nowe make is tofalle in season best 
For pale, or hegge, or house, or shippe in floode. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 59. 
4f. To sink ; depress. 
If a man would endeavour to raise or fall his voice still 
by half notes ... as far as an eight, he will not be able 
to frame his voice unto it. Bacon, Nat. Hist. 
5. To diminish ; lessen or lower. [Rare.] 
The time is critical, and every triumph or defeat ma- 
terial, as they may raise or fall the terms of peace. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 30. 
Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the 
price of your native commodities. Locke. 
6. To bring forth: as, to fall lambs. [Bare.] 
He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes ; 
Who, then conceiving, did in eaning-time 
Fall particolour'd lambs. Shak., M. of V., I. 3. 
Fair fall. See fairi, adv. To fall a bell, in bell-ring- 
ing, to swing a bell which stands a little on one side of the 
point of equilibrium, with its mouth upward, to the same 
distance on the other side of that point. 
fall 1 (fftl), n. and a. [Early mod. E. also fal, 
falle; < ME. fal, fall, a fall; AS. with mutated 
vowel fyll, rarely fell, fall, usually of death ; = 
OS. fal = OFries.fal, fel = D. val = OHG. MHG. 
fal, val, Or. fall = Icel. fall = Dan./aM = Sw. 
fall; from the verb.] I. n. 1. Descent from a 
higher to a lower place or position for want of 
support ; a dropping down, as by the power of 
gravity or by impulse ; a coming or tumbling 
down: as, the fall of a meteor or of a leaf; a 
fall from a horse or a ladder; it fall on the ice; 
the rise and /art of a piston. 
There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. 
Shak., Hamlet, v. 2. 
He that is down needs fear no fall. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, ii. 
Where never fall of human foot is heard, 
On all the desolate pavements. 
Bryant, Flood of Years. 
2. Descent from a higher to a lower level ; a 
sinking down or away ; a lowering; an ebbing : 
as, a fall of ground toward a river ; a fall of the 
tide, or of the mercury in a thermometer; a, fall 
of ten feet in a mile ; the fall, or slope, of a 
hand-rail. 
Almost everybody knows . . . how pleasant and soft the 
fall of the land is round about Plover's Barrows farm. 
A D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, vii. 
All sewers should have a greater fall than at present. 
Pop. Encyc. 
3. Descent from a higher to a lower state or 
grade; a lowering of amount, force, position, 
character, value, etc. ; a decline : as, a fall in 
stocks or rents ; a fafl of the wind or of volume 
of sound ; a fall from power or honor ; the fall 
of Adam (see the fall of man, below). 
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit 
before a fall. Prov. xvi. 18. 
In Adam's/ait 
We sinned all. Hew Eng. Primer. 
Behold thee glorious only in thy fall. 
Pope, To the Earl of Oxford, 1. 20. 
It has been boasted that, even if Australian shippers 
could not stand up against the fall in prices, the great 
flock-masters of the River Plate would be able to supply 
us with an almost unlimited quantity of mutton at recent 
market rates. fjiiarterlii Her.. t'XLV. 55. 
fall 
4. Descent to destruction ; downfall ; ruin ; ex- 
tinction. 
The Decline and Fall of the Konian Empire. 
CfiMioK (title of book). 
5. A vertical or sloping descent of flowing 
water; a waterfall, cascade, or cataract: as, 
the fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen ; the Horse- 
shoe fall at Niagara: usually in the plural, be- 
cause the descent is most commonly divided 
into parts or stages: as, Niagara falls; Tren- 
ton falls. 
A willowy brook, that turns a mill, 
With many &fall, shall linger near. 
Rogers, A Wish. 
6t. The discharge or falling of a stream into an- 
other body of water; a disemboguement. 
Volga hath seuentie mouthes orfals into the sea. 
llakluyt's Voyaijes, I. 326. 
7. Autumn, as the season when leaves fall 
from trees : also called the fall of the year : in 
antithesis to spring. [Formerly in good literary 
use in England, but now only local there, and 
generally regarded as an Americanism.] 
Mayst thou have a reasonable good spring, for thou art 
like to have many dangerous to\\\ falls. 
Middleton, quoted in Lowell's Biglow Papers, 2d ser., Int. 
What crowds of patients the town-doctor kills, 
Or how last/aW he raised the weekly bills. 
Dryden, tr. of Juvenal's Satires. 
Dubbut looak at the waaste : theer warn't not feead for a 
cow; . . . 
Nobbuta bit on it's left, an' I mean'd to 'a stubb'd it at/aH. 
Tennyson, Northern Farmer, Old Style. 
If fall, as a season of the year, has gone out of use in 
Britain, it has gone out very lately. At least, I perfectly 
well remember the phrase of "spring and /all" in my 
childhood. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 70. 
8. That which falls or has fallen; something 
in the state of falling or of having fallen : as, 
the fall of snow was soon melted; a fall of trees 
(used in England of trees that have been felled 
or cut down). In dress, a fall of lace or other material 
is a trimming so applied as to hang loosely, as over the 
front of a Itonnet, acting as a short veil, or around the 
shoulders in a low bodice. 
A light / . . . of filmy snow lies like down in the two 
courts of the Grand H6tel du Mont Blanc. 
C. W. Standard, Mashallah, p. 9. 
The maiden Spring upon the plain 
Came in a (un-ltt/BU of rain. 
Tennyson, Lancelot and Guinevere. 
9. The act of felling or cutting down : as, the 
fall of timber. [Local, U. S.] 10. In hoist- 
ing-machinery, the part of the rope to which 
power is applied, one end being rove through 
the pulley-block or -blocks, and the other car- 
ried to the winch or other hoisting-engine. 
11. In wrestling, the act or a method of throw- 
ing one's adversary to the ground. 
Tom ... at last mastered all the dodges and falls ex- 
cept one. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, iii. 
12f. Same &s falling-band. 
Under that fayre ruffe so sprucely set 
Appeares a/nW, a falling-band forsooth. 
Marston, Satires, iii. 
13f. What falls by lot ; lot; allotment; appor- 
tionment. 
Thefalles of their grounds which came first over in the 
May Floure, according as their lots were cast, 1623. 
Plymouth Colony Records, in Appendix to New England's 
[Memorial, p. 376. 
14f. Lot in life ; fortune ; condition. 
Must not the world wend in his common course 
From good to badd, and from badde to worse ; 
From worse unto that is worst of all, 
And then returne to his former fall I Spenser. 
15. The movable front of a piano which covers 
the keyboard. 16. In astrol., that part of the 
zodiac which is opposite to the exaltation of a 
planet. 17. In bot., one of the outer divisions 
of the perianth in the genus Iris, having a 
drooping blade, in distinction from the inner 
erect standards. 18. In music: (a) A cadence 
or conclusion. 
That strain again ; it had a dying fall. 
Shak., T. N., i. 1. 
(5) A lowering of the voice. 19. A trap for 
catching animals ; a fall-trap. 
Of cat, not fall, nor trap, I haif nae dreid. 
Borrowstoun Mous, Evergreen, ii. 148, St. 13. (Janrieson.) 
20f. A covey: a hawking term. 
A fall of woodcocks. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 97. 
21. pi. The descent of a deck from a fair curve, 
lengthwise, to give height to a cabin, as in 
yachts, small sloops, and schooners. Hamersly, 
Naval Encyc. 22. In whale-fishing, a large 
rope or hawser used in cutting in a whale to 
hoist in the blubber. It leads from the main- 
