sb. For the stress on this and similar words, cf. BREAK-DOWN. [f. vbl. phrase fall back: see FALL v. 80.]
a. Something upon which one may fall back; a reserve. b. A falling back, depression.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 402. It is … advisable … to provide a ‘fall-back,’ or adjacent stubble field into which the flock may retire at pleasure.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxi. (1856), 162. He would leave the Mary, his tender of twelve tons, at a little inlet near the point, to serve as a fall-back in case we should lose our vessels or become sealed up in permanent ice.
1892. Pall Mall G., 26 Feb., 2/1. You will have occasional months of fall-back, but that will in time be made up, and every quarter will show a steady increase.
