🤸 A funny fall 😳 An embarrassing mistake

pratfall

4 8.9

A fall in which someone lands on their bottom, often in a funny way

noun
/ˈprætˌfɔl/

: caída cómica

In the first part of the number, he makes believe that he is hopelessly inept and engages in exaggerated pratfalls on the dance floor.
taking a pratfall
comic pratfalls

But I could do weird impersonations and I could do funny pratfalls and I could tell jokes and that allowed me to fit in.

Examples

After slipping on the wet floor, she landed with an embarrassing pratfall in front of her colleagues.
Then, he stepped on a patch of ice hidden in a shadow and did the most perfect pratfall I ever saw.

Criminal Law (1989)
But I could do weird impersonations and I could do funny pratfalls and I could tell jokes and that allowed me to fit in.

André Duqum
But she also has a knack for physical comedy, taking a surprising number of pratfalls alongside Mike Myers and Dane Cook.

Blog text (5)
Cut to candid film of Norville getting out of a car, noticing the camera, grinning and waving as he walks, and taking a pratfall.

Fiction book (1994)
During the comedy show, the clown's spectacular pratfall had the audience roaring with laughter.
He often incorporated a funny pratfall into his routines to elicit laughter from the crowd.

Synonyms

slip

vspratfall

39 1.0

An accidental sliding that makes you lose your balance

results in a seated fall that often appears comical or embarrassing

spill

vspratfall

13 1.7

A sudden fall when someone loses balance while moving

involves landing specifically on the buttocks and often being comic or humiliating

Antonyms

success

∞ 1.0

Getting what you want after working hard

How Humiliating

to fall on one's face

Informal

1 7.6

pratfall

4 8.9

stumble

13 3.4

fall

233 1.0

trip

14 1.0

Surface Forms

pratfall singular

pratfalls plural

Morphology

pratfall = prat + fall (semi-transparent) = prat + fall

The compound literally combines 'prat' (slang for buttocks) + 'fall' producing a fall onto the buttocks, but 'prat' is slang/less familiar and may be unknown or ambiguous to many learners.

Etymology

The word pratfall comes from prat meaning 'butt' and fall meaning 'a fall'. It originally meant literally falling onto your butt in a funny or humiliating way, which is why we use it for a comical, embarrassing tumble.