to fall
- verb
- /fɔl/
- He's falling apart.
- fall silent
- fall into melancholy
Examples
-
Eleanor Butler watched, puzzled, as Scarlett's mouth fell half-open in surprise, and her eyes glittered with excitement.
Fiction book (1991) -
Then her eyes fell; she turned again and went back to her window ledge.
Academic text (2017) -
My heart falls in on itself when you look at me like that.
-
We're leaving for Toronto in the morning... ...so don't fall apart on me now.
-
One-third of unemployed young people "fall apart" emotionally about their lack.
Academic text (2015) -
I fell apart and wound up in the psychiatric portion of NYU.
-
My smile fell the moment I heard the bad news.
-
Her gaze fell to the ground, filled with disappointment.
-
I could see his mood fall when they announced the cancellation.
Synonyms
Fall suddenly and steeply from a high place or in amount
To sit down or fall forward suddenly and heavily
To have the mouth or jaw suddenly fall open because of surprise
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
To accept what happens and not try to change the result
- Informal
To fail completely and feel embarrassed in front of others
Children often look and behave like their parents
- Informal
To react strongly because something is very funny or surprising
- Vulgar
To lose your balance and land on your backside in an awkward or embarrassing way
- Informal
Suddenly fail completely because it is weak or badly built
- Formal
To die as a Christian who trusts in God and expects life after death
To keep trying after many failures no matter how often you fail
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Literature
An event in the Bible when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, lost their innocence, and left the Garden
- Specialized
A green or brown caterpillar with white stripes that eats tree leaves in autumn
A small European plant with yellow flowers that blooms in the fall and is now common in North America
- US
The time when day and night are almost the same length, marking the start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere
- Literature
A Christian belief that people lose their innocence when they disobey God
- Specialized
A caterpillar that lives in large silk nests on tree branches and eats the leaves in late summer and fall
A bush that loses its leaves and has large cone-shaped flowers in fall
How Sad
Surface Forms
Etymology
If someone's face falls, it is as if their expression drops down, from old English feallan 'to fall'. So a face or mood 'falling' shows sudden sadness or disappointment.