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Glite Dictionary
⬇️ A loss of status ⬇️ To lose respect
to fall from grace

to fall from grace

3 7.0
To begin behaving badly again and lose people's respect
  • idiom
  • /fɔl frʌm ɡreɪs/
translation icon : caer en desgracia
  • She was once a respected leader, but her unethical decisions made her fall from grace among her colleagues.

This was a thriving bit of England, but it fell from grace.

Examples

  • Scherner smiles and allows Goeth to shake his hand, but it's clear, even to Goeth himself, that he has fallen from grace.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Has a major-party presidential candidate ever fallen from grace this quickly?

    Blog text (6)

  • The reason it is so easy to fall from grace is that so few really do enter God's service with all their heart.

    Blog text (29)

  • But then we sinned, and fell from grace.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Once any party obtains this power, they might also fall from grace.

    Blog text (3)

  • Of course, I think the interesting questions in a couple of years may be, "Why did Samsung fall from grace?"

    Blog text (27)

  • General David Petraeus has become the latest American hero to fall from grace, revealing that he is, in fact, human.

    Blog text (4)

  • Besides, the US has fallen from grace, and along with that, seemingly from the place it occupied at the top of the socio-economic ladder.

    Blog text (29)

  • The tides favoring extreme measures for change subsided, World War II approached, and the Indian New Deal fell from grace.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Still, the book is at its brightest when Fancher is writing about show-business figures who've fallen from grace.

    Blog text (31)

Synonyms

to fall
vsto fall from grace
  • Literature
725 8.1

Give in to temptation or sin

relates more to public loss of approval after prior good conduct than private yielding
to fall back
vsto fall from grace
13 4.2

To begin an old bad habit again after trying to change

focuses on losing others' approval after a period of good behavior
to lapse
vsto fall from grace
8 5.2

To return to a previous bad habit

tends to mean losing approval after wrongdoing rather than a simple temporary slip
to backslide
vsto fall from grace
2 7.5

To start doing old bad habits again after making progress

involves losing approval or respect after misconduct rather than mere relapse
to slip back to old ways
vsto fall from grace
  • Informal
5.7

Gradually return to old habits, often bad ones

emphasizes losing others' respect after a moral failure rather than gradual habit return
to recidivate
vsto fall from grace
  • Specialized
9.9

To commit the same crime again after being punished

covers losing approval after wrongdoing, not only criminal relapse

Antonyms

to command respect
4 4.9

To get respect and authority from other people because of your behavior or position

How Respected

admired
1.8
respected
8 2.3
to fall from grace
3 7.0
to lose face
  • Informal
11 6.6
despised
1 4.5

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

fall + from + grace

The meaning 'loss of status or favor' is directly derivable from combining 'fall' (a descent) + 'from' (indicating origin) + 'grace' (favor/forgiveness); the image of descending from a state of grace maps clearly onto losing respect or status. Although slightly figurative, this composition follows a common metaphorical pattern found across many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would very likely infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Fall from grace (verb) may come from old religious and royal stories: imagine someone high in favor who then falls away from a place of grace, losing God's or a ruler's approval. So the verb means 'to lose approval' or 'to go back to bad behavior'.