to fall for
84
3.7
- phrasal verb
- /fɔl fɔr/
- Informal
:
enamorarse de
- After a few weeks of dating, he realized he had truly fallen for her.
You are actually being steadfast and not falling for the flowers and the nights out.
- You are actually being steadfast and not falling for the flowers and the nights out.
- So someone said I am quickly falling for my therapist.
- You want the man to fall for you for who you are.
- Or maybe she just fell for his charm.
- Lots of folks feel foolish because I they say I fell for the narcissist in the past.
- So for a woman to fall for you, she needs to feel something.
- And so he's falling for both Jessica and for this girl named Chelsea.
- If he doesn't stop them soon as new friends and the girl he might be falling for will be in danger...
- I think for me, I'd just come out of a marriage and I didn't want to fall for someone so quickly.
- You see you, you got to go deeper to ensure you are falling for the man and not the experience, right?
- So what they fear is that when they because they've fallen for someone in the past and when they fell for someone in the past, they lost themselves.
- Now that I found this love at that time, that's exactly the time where you have to double down on the things you love alongside falling for the person in front of you.
Examples
-
You want to know why John fell for you?
-
Linda and I have fallen for one another.
-
You want the man to fall for you for who you are.
-
So for a woman to fall for you, she needs to feel something.
-
I tried so hard not to, but I fell for him.
-
Let me guess, you fell for the bad guy.
-
Why is it that you always fall for people who leave you?
-
And he fell for her.
-
In any event, my feelings were hurt when I learned that he had fallen for someone else.
Fiction book (1999) -
I've fallen for you big time.
Synonyms
950
2.5
To begin to feel strong romantic feelings for someone
475
1.6
To begin to feel strong romantic feelings for someone or something
106
3.3
To like someone as more than a friend, often secretly
1
4.7
To fall in love suddenly, often without planning
1
8.6
Begin to like someone in a romantic way
1
4.4
To fall in love with someone or something
Antonyms
How Attracted
Surface Forms
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 uses the simple image of falling to show a sudden loss of control, like stumbling toward someone you like and being swept away by feeling. That's why it means 'to become attracted to' or 'to fall in love'.