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falling |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Fall \Fall\ (f[add]l), v. i. [imp. {Fell}; p. p. {Fallen}; p. pr & vb n. {Falling}.] [AS. feallan akin to D. vallen, OS & OHG. fallan, G. fallen, Icel. Falla, Sw falla, Dan. falde, Lith. pulti, L. fallere to deceive, Gr sfa`llein to cause to fall, Skr. sphal, sphul to tremble. Cf {Fail}, {Fell}, v. t., to cause to fall.] 1. To Descend, either suddenly or gradually; particularly, to descend by the force of gravity; to drop; to sink; as the apple falls; the tide falls; the mercury falls in the barometer. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. --Luke x. 18. 2. To cease to be erect; to take suddenly a recumbent posture; to become prostrate; to drop; as a child totters and falls; a tree falls; a worshiper falls on his knees. I fell at his feet to worship him --Rev. xix. 10. 3. To find a final outlet; to discharge its waters; to empty; -- with into as the river Rhone falls into the Mediterranean. 4. To become prostrate and dead; to die; especially, to die by violence, as in battle. A thousand shall fall at thy side --Ps. xci. 7. He rushed into the field, and foremost fighting, fell. --Byron. 5. To cease to be active or strong; to die away to lose strength; to subside; to become less intense; as the wind falls. 6. To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; -- said of the young of certain animals. --Shak. 7. To decline in power, glory, wealth, or importance; to become insignificant; to lose rank or position; to decline in weight, value, price etc.; to become less as the falls; stocks fell two points. I am a poor falle man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master. --Shak. The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished. --Sir J. Davies. 8. To be overthrown or captured; to be destroyed. Heaven and earth will witness, If Rome must fall, that we are innocent. --Addison. 9. To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin; to depart from the faith; to apostatize; to sin. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. --Heb. iv 11. 10. To become insnared or embarrassed; to be entrapped; to be worse off than before asm to fall into error; to fall into difficulties. 11. To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; -- said of the countenance. Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. --Gen. iv 5. I have observed of late thy looks are fallen. --Addison. 12. To sink; to languish; to become feeble or faint; as our spirits rise and fall with our fortunes. 13. To pass somewhat suddenly, and passively, into a new state of body or mind; to become as to fall asleep; to fall into a passion; to fall in love; to fall into temptation. 14. To happen; to to come to pass; to light; to befall; to issue; to terminate. The Romans fell on this model by chance. --Swift. Sit still my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. --Ruth. iii. 18. They do not make laws, they fall into customs. --H. Spencer. 15. To come to occur; to arrive. The vernal equinox, which at the Nicene Council fell on the 21st of March, falls now [1694] about ten days sooner. --Holder. 16. To begin with haste, ardor, or vehemence; to rush or hurry; as they fell to blows. They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul. --Jowett (Thucyd. ). 17. To pass or be transferred by chance, lot distribution, inheritance, or otherwise; as the estate fell to his brother; the kingdom fell into the hands of his rivals. 18. To belong or appertain. If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget them all --Pope. 19. To be dropped or uttered carelessly; as an unguarded expression fell from his lips; not a murmur fell from him {To fall abroad of} (Naut.), to strike against; -- applied to one vessel coming into collision with another. {To fall among}, to come among accidentally or unexpectedly. {To fall astern} (Naut.), to move or be driven backward; to be left behind; as a ship falls astern by the force of a current, or when outsailed by another. {To fall away}. a To lose flesh; to become lean or emaciated; to pine. b To renounce or desert allegiance; to revolt or rebel. c To renounce or desert the faith; to apostatize. ``These . . . for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.'' --Luke viii. 13. d To perish; to vanish; to be lost. ``How . . . can the soul . . . fall away into nothing?'' --Addison. e To decline gradually; to fade; to languish, or become faint. ``One color falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly.'' --Addison. {To fall back}. a To recede or retreat; to give way b To fail of performing a promise or purpose; not to fulfill. {To fall back upon}. a (Mil.) To retreat for safety to (a stronger position in the rear, as to a fort or a supporting body of troops). b To have recourse to (a reserved fund, or some available expedient or support). {To fall calm}, to cease to blow; to become calm. {To fall down}. a To prostrate one's self in worship. ``All kings shall fall down before him.'' --Ps. lxxii. 11. b To sink; to come to the ground. ``Down fell the beauteous youth.'' --Dryden. c To bend or bow, as a suppliant. d (Naut.) To sail or drift toward the mouth of a river or other outlet. {To fall flat}, to produce no response or result; to fail of the intended effect; as his speech fell flat. {To fall foul of}. a (Naut.) To have a collision with to become entangled with b To attack; to make an assault upon {To fall from}, to recede or depart from not to adhere to as to fall from an agreement or engagement; to fall from allegiance or duty. {To fall from grace} (M. E. Ch.), to sin; to withdraw from the faith. {To fall home} (Ship Carp.), to curve inward; -- said of the timbers or upper parts of a ship's side which are much within a perpendicular. {To fall in}. a To sink inwards; as the roof fell in b (Mil.) To take one's proper or assigned place in line as to fall in on the right c To come to an end to terminate; to lapse; as on the death of Mr B., the annuuity, which he had so long received, fell in d To become operative. ``The reversion, to which he had been nominated twenty years before fell in.'' --Macaulay. {To fall into one's hands}, to pass, often suddenly or unexpectedly, into one's ownership or control; as to spike cannon when they are likely to fall into the hands of the enemy. {To fall in with}. a To meet with accidentally; as to fall in with a friend. b (Naut.) To meet as a ship; also to discover or come near as land. c To concur with to agree with as the measure falls in with popular opinion. d To comply; to yield to ``You will find it difficult to persuade learned men to fall in with your projects.'' --Addison. {To fall off}. a To drop; as fruits fall off when ripe. b To withdraw; to separate; to become detached; as friends fall off in adversity. ``Love cools, friendship falls off brothers divide.'' --Shak. c To perish; to die away as words fall off by disuse. d To apostatize; to forsake; to withdraw from the faith, or from allegiance or duty. Those captive tribes . . . fell off From God to worship calves. --Milton. e To forsake; to abandon; as his customers fell off f To depreciate; to change for the worse; to deteriorate; to become less valuable, abundant, or interesting; as a falling off in the wheat crop; the magazine or the review falls off ``O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!'' --Shak. g (Naut.) To deviate or trend to the leeward of the point to which the head of the ship was before directed; to fall to leeward. {To fall on}. a To meet with to light upon as we have fallen on evil days. b To begin suddenly and eagerly. ``Fall on and try the appetite to eat.'' --Dryden. c To begin an attack; to assault; to assail. ``Fall on fall on and hear him not.'' --Dryden. d To drop on to descend on {To fall out}. a To quarrel; to begin to contend. A soul exasperated in ills falls out With everything, its friend, itself --Addison. b To happen; to befall; to chance. ``There fell out a bloody quarrel betwixt the frogs and the mice.'' --L'Estrange. c (Mil.) To leave the ranks, as a soldier. {To fall over}. a To revolt; to desert from one side to another. b To fall beyond. --Shak. {To fall short}, to be deficient; as the corn falls short; they all fall short in duty. {To fall through}, to come to nothing; to fail as the engageent has fallen through {To fall to}, to begin. ``Fall to with eager joy, on homely food.'' --Dryden. {To fall under}. a To come under or within the limits of to be subjected to as they fell under the jurisdiction of the emperor. b To come under to become the subject of as this point did not fall under the cognizance or deliberations of the court; these things do not fall under human sight or observation. c To come within; to be ranged or reckoned with to be subordinate to in the way of classification; as these substances fall under a different class or order {To fall upon}. a To attack. [See {To fall on}.] b To attempt; to have recourse to ``I do not intend to fall upon nice disquisitions.'' --Holder. c To rush against. Note: Fall primarily denotes descending motion, either in a perpendicular or inclined direction, and in most of its applications, implies, literally or figuratively, velocity, haste, suddenness, or violence. Its use is so various, and so mush diversified by modifying words that it is not easy to enumerate its senses in all its applications. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Falling \Fall"ing\, a. & n. from {Fall}, v. i. {Falling away}, {Falling off}, etc See {To fall away}, {To fall off}, etc., under {Fall}, v. i. {Falling band}, the plain, broad, linen collar turning down over the doublet, worn in the early part of the 17th century. {Falling sickness} (Med.), epilepsy. --Shak. {Falling star}. (Astron.) See {Shooting star}. {Falling stone}, a stone falling through the atmosphere; a meteorite; an a["e]rolite. {Falling tide}, the ebb tide. {Falling weather}, a rainy season. [Colloq.] --Bartlett. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: falling adj 1: suddenly losing an upright position; "they ran from the falling tree"; "a falling wall crushed the car" [ant: {standing}] 2: decreasing in amount or degree; "falling temperature" 3: coming after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot; "the falling action" [ant: {rising}] 4: becoming lower or less in degree or value; "a falling market"; "falling incomes" [ant: {rising}] 5: coming down freely under the influence of gravity; "the eerie whistle of dropping bombs"; "falling rain" [syn: {dropping}] n : a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity; "it was a miracle that he survived the drop from that height" [syn: {drop}, {fall}]
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