Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎩 To be tricked 😍 To fall in love
to fall for

to fall for

148 4.3
To be tricked into believing something that is not true
  • phrasal verb
  • /fɔl fɔr/
  • Informal
translation icon : caer en
  • She was so eager to believe the advertisement that she fell for the scam.
  • fall for a scam
  • fall for a trick
  • fall for a trap

I'm just saying that don't fall for the lie that it's a lot.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I can't believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book!

    Spaceballs (1987)

  • I have seen how quickly people fall for that hype.

    Shawn Ryan Show

  • But why do we fall for this kind of person?

  • Any of us can fall for anything because we want to.

  • And I know how easy it is to fall for these things.

    Robert Greene

  • There is no end to the people who will fall for something like this.

    Lex Fridman

  • You almost fell for it, though.

    Midnight (2020)

  • Well, at least I fell for him before I found out he was rich!

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I am more upset with myself that I fell for your lies.

  • I can't believe I fell for it again.

    Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)

Synonyms

to fall victim to
vsto fall for
25 4.6

Suffer harm you cannot avoid because of someone or something bad

involves believing false things specifically rather than suffering harm
to fall into a trap
vsto fall for
1 4.1

Become tricked into a bad or dangerous situation

is misled into believing false things rather than being trapped
to fall for someone's charming lines
vsto fall for
  • Informal
8.1

To be tricked by someone's flattering words

is deceived by any false claim or trick not only flattering speech

Antonyms

to see through
68 4.0

To recognize when someone is pretending or lying

to disbelieve
14 4.7

To not accept that something is true

How Deceived

to swindle
20 5.5
to con someone
  • Slang
7.7
to deceive
270 3.9
to fall for
  • Informal
148 4.3
to take in
  • Informal
23 4.3

Surface Forms

fall for infinitive
fell for past
fallen for past participle
falling for present participle
falls for third person singular

Morphology

fall + for

The romantic sense is motivated by the metaphor of 'fall' (a sudden loss of balance) but the contribution of 'for' is not literal and the specific meaning 'become attracted to someone' is a metaphorical extension rather than a straightforward composition. Because the phrase is also polysemous (e.g., 'fall for' = be deceived) and the preposition does not transparently signal the romantic sense, a B1 learner who only knows the parts would not reliably infer the meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

Fall for may come from the picture of someone literally falling into a hidden trap or hole set by a trickster, so they are caught and fooled. That's why it now means 'to be deceived or tricked'.