FALL

Definitions

1. 1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.
2. 2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was walking on ice, and had a fall.
3. 3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin. They thy fall conspire. Denham. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Prov. xvi. 18.
4. 4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire. Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. Pope.
5. 5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town ; as, the fall of Sebastopol.
6. 6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents.
7. 7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.
8. 8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.
9. 9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.
10. 10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice. Addison.
11. 11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water of a stream has a fall of five feet.
12. 12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn. What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how, last fall, he raised the weekly bills. Dryden.
13. 13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of snow.
14. 14. The act of felling or cutting down. "The fall of timber." Johnson.
15. 15. Lapse or declinsion from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.
16. 16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a faule. B. Jonson.
17. 17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting. Fall herring (Zoöl.), a herring of the Atlantic (Clupea mediocris); -- also called tailor herring, and hickory shad. -- To try a fall, to try a bout at wrestling. Shak.