fall

Etymology 1

Verb from Middle English fallen, from Old English feallan (“to fall, fail, decay, die, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallan (“to fall”), from Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”). Cognate with West Frisian falle (“to fall”), Low German fallen (“to fall”), Dutch vallen (“to fall”), German fallen (“to fall”), Danish falde (“to fall”), Norwegian Bokmål falle (“to fall”), Norwegian Nynorsk falla (“to fall”), Icelandic falla (“to fall”), Albanian fal (“forgive, pray, salute, greet”), Lithuanian pùlti (“to attack, rush”). Noun from Middle English fal, fall, falle, from Old English feall, ġefeall (“a falling, fall”) and Old English fealle (“trap, snare”), from Proto-Germanic *fallą, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”). Cognate with Dutch val, German Fall (“fall”) and German Falle (“trap, snare”), Danish fald, Swedish fall, Icelandic fall. Sense of "autumn" is attested by the 1660s in England as a shortening of fall of the leaf (1540s), from the falling of leaves during this season. Along with autumn, it mostly replaced the older name harvest as that name began to be associated strictly with the act of harvesting. Compare spring, which began as a shortening of “spring of the leaf”.

verb

1. (heading, intransitive) To be moved downwards.
   1. To move to a lower position under the effect of gravity.
      Thrown from a cliff, the stone fell 100 feet before hitting the ground.
   2. To come down, to drop or descend.
      The rain fell at dawn.
      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.
      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.
      He fell to the floor and begged for mercy.
   5. To be brought to the ground.
2. (transitive) To move downwards.
   1. (obsolete) To let fall; to drop.
   2. (obsolete) To sink; to depress.
      to fall the voice
   3. (UK, US, dialect, archaic) To fell; to cut down.
      to fall a tree
3. (intransitive) To change, often negatively.
   1. (copulative, in idiomatic expressions) To become.
      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
      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.
      Rome fell to the Goths in 410 AD.
   3. (intransitive, formal, euphemistic) To die, especially in battle or by disease.
      This is a monument to all those who fell in the First World War.
   4. (intransitive) To become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc.).
      The candidate's poll ratings fell abruptly after the banking scandal.
      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. 2013-07-20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
4. 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.) 1978, Dwight David Eisenhower, Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Letters to Mamie, Doubleday Books
5. (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.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To diminish; to lessen or lower.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To bring forth.
   to fall lambs
8. (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, 1672, The Office of the Good House-wife, page 27
   My intended remarks are on the cords , and wiping dry the newly fallen calf 1805, John Lawrence, A general treatise on cattle, the ox, the sheep, and the swine, etc, page 100
   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; 1869, William Youatt, Sheep: Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases, page 382
   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. 1892, United States. Bureau of Animal Industry, Special Report on the History and Present Condition of the Sheep Industry of the United States, page 422
9. (intransitive) To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin.
10. (intransitive) To become ensnared or entrapped; to be worse off than before.
    to fall into error;  to fall into difficulties
11. (intransitive) To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; said of the face.
12. (intransitive) To happen; to come to pass; to chance or light (upon).
    1879, Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology Volume II – Part IV: Ceremonial Institutions Primitive men […] do not make laws, they fall into customs.
13. (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. 1881, Benjamin Jowett (Thucydides)
14. (intransitive) To be dropped or uttered carelessly.
    An unguarded expression fell from his lips.
15. (intransitive, of a fabric) To hang down (under the influence of gravity).
    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.

noun

1. The act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity.
2. A reduction in quantity, pitch, etc.
3. (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.
   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] 1816, John Pickering, A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States of America
4. A loss of greatness or status.
   the fall of Rome
5. That which falls or cascades.
   A fall of hair tumbled down one side of her body like a veil. 2010, Winter Pennington, Witch Wolf
6. (sports) A crucial event or circumstance.
   1. (cricket, of a wicket) The action of a batsman being out.
   2. (curling) A defect in the ice which causes stones thrown into an area to drift in a given direction.
   3. (wrestling) An instance of a wrestler being pinned to the mat.
7. 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. 2004, Zoe Diana Draelos, Hair Care: An Illustrated Dermatologic Handbook, page 202
8. (informal, US) Blame or punishment for a failure or misdeed.
   He set up his rival to take the fall.
9. (nautical) The part of the rope of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting (usu. plural).
   … with one overhauled fall flying and an iron-bound block capering in the air. 1919, Joseph Conrad, Typhoon
   Have the goodness to secure the falls of the mizzen halyards.
10. An old Scots unit of measure equal to six ells.
11. 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. 1945, Tom Ronan, Strangers on the Ophir, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 113
12. The lid, on a piano, that covers the keyboard

Etymology 2

Perhaps from the north-eastern Scottish pronunciation of whale.

intj

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

noun

1. (nautical) The chasing of a hunted whale.