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.
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.
Fall
(Fall) v. t.
1. To let fall; to drop. [Obs.]
For every tear he falls, a Trojan bleeds.
Shak. 2. To sink; to depress; as, to fall the voice. [Obs.]
3. To diminish; to lessen or lower. [Obs.]
Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of your native commodities.
Locke. 4. To bring forth; as, to fall lambs. [R.] Shak.
5. To fell; to cut down; as, to fall a tree. [Prov. Eng. & Local, U.S.]
