Fall sb.¹

Forms: 3 fael, 3 south, væl, val, 3–7 fal, 4–7 falle, 6 faule, fawle, foll, 8–9 Sc. fa’, faw, 3– fall. [f. FALL v.: cf. OFris. fal, fel masc., OS., OHG. fal, ON. fall neut. The synonymous OE. fiȩll, fyll (:—*falli-z), f. same root, did not survive into ME., unless it be represented by the forms fæl, væl in Layamon.] An act or instance of falling.

  I.  A falling from a height.

  1.  A dropping down from a high or relatively high position, by the force of gravity.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 11862. Full hefiȝ fall to fallenn.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2322.

1393.  Gower, Conf., I. 15. Betwene two stooles is the fall.

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 154. An other pitiyng his fall, asked him … how got you into that pitte?

1563.  Fulke, Meteors, 8. By the fall of them [the starres], both thunder and lightning are caused.

1599.  Shaks., Pass. Pilgr., 136.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 76.

1748.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass., I. 151. One of them, by a Fall from the Parapet at the Top of the Factory, was killed.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xi. 13.

1851.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 25. Fall, a dropping down of the roof stone.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 84. Fixing my feet suddenly in the snow, [I] endeavoured to check his fall.

1863.  Kingsley, Water-bab., 297. That was all in his day’s work like a fair fall with the hounds.

  b.  fig.; esp. a descent from high estate or from moral elevation.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 15. Se herre degre se þe fal is wurse.

c. 1430.  Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 53.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 6 b. Whom they moost auaunce … they … gyue them the greater fall.

1679.  Burnet, Hist. Ref., an. 1543, I. III. 326. Doctor London … did now, upon Cromwell’s fall, apply himself to Gardiner.

1780.  J. Harris, Philol. Enq., Wks. (1841), 454. The interval between the fall of these two empires, (Western or Latin in the fifth century, the Eastern or Grecian in the fifteenth,) making a space of near a thousand years, constitutes what we call the middle age.

1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xvii. 333. One great alteration in the state of Scotland was almost necessarily involved in the fall of the Stuarts.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., viii. 582. Puritanism was far from being dead; it drew indeed a nobler life from its very fall.

  c.  concr. That which falls; also pl.

1742.  Young, Nt. Th., ix. 63.

1844.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 268. The short and broken [straw] … goes away in what is technically termed ‘falls’ or pulls.

1890.  Pall Mall G., 11 March, 4/2. To clear away a ‘fall,’ some of the blocks of coal in which were as large as trucks.

  d.  A descent of rain, hail, snow, meteors, etc.; the quantity that falls at one time or in a certain period. Cf. RAINFALL.

1593.  Shaks., The Rape of Lucrece, 551.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1638), 128. Nor do the clouds distill their raine in drops as is usuall in colder regions, but in whole and violent irruptions; dangerous both in the fall, and no lesse hurtfull in the using.

1749.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass., II. 20. At Night a very great Fall of Hail, Snow, and Sleet, the Hail rattling on the Deck.

1814.  D. H. O’Brien, Captiv. & Escape, 178. We came close down to the river, and, after waving some time, had the satisfaction of seeing a man embark in the boat; and, notwithstanding the flood was very rapid from the late falls of rain, he conducted himself across in a very masterly style, and then ferryed us over.

1833.  Penny Cycl., I. 151/1. Aërolites, when taken up soon after their fall, are extremely hot.

1858.  Longf., Children, iii.

1871.  Lockyer, Astron., iii. § 316. 139. Among the largest aërolitic falls of modern times we may mention the following.

  concr.  1878.  Huxley, Physiography, 63. A fall of snow thus acts like a mantle of fur thrown over the earth.

  e.  The coming down, approach, first part (of night, twilight, winter), rare. Cf. NIGHTFALL.

1654.  Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 674. Fifteen thousand Horse and Foot, were sent (and he for their guide) about fall of the Night, to intercept our imagin’d Recruits.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 229. They are best when leanest…. At the fall and dead of Winter.

1816.  Keats, Poems, To my Brothers.

1823.  Byron, Juan, VII. lvi.

  † f.  Shedding, effusion (of blood). Obs.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 25.

  † g.  The dropping out (of teeth). Obs.

1520.  Calisto & Melib., in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 78.

  † h.  The downward stroke (of a sword, etc.).

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 111.

  2.  (In early use also more fully † fall of the leaf.) That part of the year when leaves fall from the trees; autumn. In U. S. the ordinary name for autumn; in England now rare in literary use, though found in some dialects; spring and fall, the fall of the year, are, however, in fairly common use.

1545.  Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 48. The hole yere is deuided into .iiii. partes, Spring tyme, Somer, faule of the leafe, and winter.

1599.  Raleigh, Reply to Marlowe, Poems (Aldine ed.), 11.

a. 1631.  Capt. John Smith, England’s Improvement Revived, III. (1673), 59. The best time to to transplant, or remove younger Trees, is at, or suddenly after the fall of the Leafe, about the Change of the Moon.

1664.  Evelyn, Sylva (1670), iii. 14. His [the Oak] fullness of leaves, which tarnish, and becoming yellow at the fall, do commonly clothe it all the Winter, the Roots growing very deep and stragling.

1714.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), VI. 726. By reason of a contusion in his head, which happen’d some years since by a fall from his horse, in the spring and fall he was alwaies disturbed.

1752.  J. Edwards, Wks. (1834), I. p. cxcv/1. I thank you for your letter … which I received this fall.

1826.  Scott, Mal. Malagr., i. 10. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 379. The winter pruning should be performed … at the fall of the leaf.

1851.  Carlyle, Sterling, I. xi. (1872), 67. His first child, a son Edward, now living and grown to manhood, was born there, ‘at Brighton in the Island of St. Vincent,’ in the fall of that year 1831.

1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. xlvii. 38. It was in the fall apparently of the year 791 that Agrippa sailed for the East.

1864.  Lowell, Biglow P., Poet. Wks. (1879), 255. Frosts have been unusually backward this fall.

  fig.  1727.  Philip Quarll (1816), 82.

  3.  The manner in which anything falls. b. Cards. The manner in which the cards are dealt.

1535.  Coverdale, Prov. xvi. 33. The lottes are cast in to the lappe, but their fall stondeth in the Lorde.

1885.  Proctor, Whist, iv. 60. The fall of the cards in the first suit may … lead him to do so.

  4.  Birth or production by dropping from the parent; the quantity born or produced.

1796.  Hull Advertiser, 14 May, 1/4. The largest fall of lambs this year almost ever known.

1831.  Howitt, Seasons, March, 72–3. The principal fall of lambs takes place now, and the shepherds are full of cares.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, The Harvest of the Sea (1873), 236. The greatest fall of spawn ever known in England occurred forty-six years ago.

  II.  A sinking to a lower level.

  5.  A sinking down, subsidence (esp. of waves and the like); the ebb (of the tide). Also, the setting (of the sun, stars, etc.), arch.; † the alighting (of a bird). † To be at fall: to be in a low condition.

1571.  Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 128. The sunne riseth, and spreads his beames over the face of the earth, holdeth his course to his fall, passeth the night season, and riseth againe.

1586.  A. Day, The English Secretary, I. (1625), 24. What darcknes, what tempestes, what rising and deepest fall of waues agayne, what windes, what mingling of heauen and earth togeather doth he there relate.

1598.  Chapman, Iliad, II. 396. In their falls [fowl] lay out such throats, that [etc.].

1607.  Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 214. Now they are at fall, want Treature.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 264. The perpendicular rise and fall of the spring-tides is fifteen feet, and at neap-tides, eight feet.

1868–70.  Morris, Earthly Par. (1890), 168/2. The wide sun reddened towards his fall.

  fig.  1672.  W. Temple, An Essay upon the Original and Nature of Government, Wks. 1731, I. 104. They [form of government] have all their Heights and their Falls.

  b.  Astrol. (See quot.)

1676.  Lilly, Anima Astrologiæ, 10. When a Planet is joyned to another in his Declension or Fall; that is, in Opposition to its own House or Exaltation.

1819.  in J. Wilson, Dict. Astrol, 99.

1835.  in ‘Zadkiel,’ Lilly’s Introd. Astrol., 337.

  c.  fig. Decline, decay.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett., I. II. xv. 23. Amsterdam … rose upon the fall of this Town [Antwerp].

1682.  Otway, Venice Preserved, IV. i. Remember him that prop’d the fall of Venice.

1864.  Glasgow Herald, 12 Nov. A country that was in the utmost state of fall and degradation.

  d.  The decline or closing part (of a day, year, life). Also rarely, Fall of day = the west.

1628.  Venner, Baths of Bathe, 7–8. And now also I must aduertise such, as in the declining, or Fall of the yeere, which we call the Autumne, shall for the health of their bodies repaire to our Baths.

1712.  Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, II. 98.

1800–24.  Campbell, Poems, Caroline, II. To Evening Star, v.

1882.  Besant, Revolt of Man, i. (1883), 8. The older pictures were mostly the heads of men, taken in the fall of life.

  6.  The discharge or disemboguement of a river; † the place where this occurs, the mouth.

1577–87.  Harrison, Descr. Brit., xii., in Holinshed, 53. The greatest rivers, into whose mouthes or falles shippes might find safe entrance.

1705.  Addison, Italy, 113. The Po as great as it is; for before its Fall into the Gulf, it receives into its Channel the most considerable Rivers of Piemont, Milan, and the rest of Lombardy.

  7.  The falling of a stream of water down a declivity; hence, a cascade, cataract, waterfall. Frequent in pl., as in Falls of the Clyde, Niagara, etc.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., April, 36.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VII. 318. The fall and roaring of Nyle.

1674.  N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 185. The shallow waters that drill between the pebbles in the Falls of Guiny or Africa.

1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 265. The fall of waters, which one hears all around, would be agreeable to none but those who would indulge themselves, for a time, in a pensive melancholy.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 9. Of the falls in the Rhine, near Schaffhausen.

1787.  T. Best, A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling (ed. 2), 30. It is good angling in whirlpools, under bridges, at the falls of mills, and in any place where the water is deep and clear, and not disturbed with wind, or weather.

1806.  Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2), 92. The falls of Clyde principally interest the stranger.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, ix. 116. On that fall of the stream will be our mill.

1872.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 198. The roar of the falls is heard in the distance, and a rising cloud of mist indicates their locality.

  † b.  That over which water falls. Obs.

1749.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass., II. 26. Nor no Ice quite into the Bay, excepting some Pieces stopped upon a Fall or Ridge of Stone.

  † c.  Fall of a bridge: cf. quot. 1880.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 115. And Waters, when they beat vpon the Shore, or are strained, (as in the falls of Bridges;) Or are dashed against themselves by Winds, giue a Roaring Noise.

[1880.  Walmisley, Bridges over Thames, 6. The resistance caused to the free ebb and flow of a large body of water by the contraction of its channel produced a fall or rapid under the bridge.]

  8.  Downward direction or trend of a surface or outline; a deviation, sudden or gradual, in a downward direction from the general level; a slope or declivity.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Abruptum … that hath such a fal or stipenesse downe, that a man cannot go but fall downe.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 615. Neither doth this circle shine in the concauitie or in the fall of the gem.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 194. A small insensible Fall should be given these Channels, to add a quicker Current to the Water.

1755.  Gray, Lett., Wks. 1884, II. 265. A natural terrass three miles long, literally not three times broader than Windsor-terrass, with a gradual fall on both sides, and covered with a turf like Newmarket.

1832.  Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 465. The country through which we travelled was wooded and stocked with wild animals towards the fall of the hills.

1847.  Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, xxvii. The beautiful rounded arms, the symmetrical fall of the shoulders, and the proportion of the whole figure, was a surprise to him.

1858.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XIX. I. 188. Most of the Weald lands have a good fall for draining.

1865.  Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, vii. 87. The girls ran to the spot, and saw a little fall in the ground.

  b.  The distance through which anything descends, whether suddenly or gradually; the difference in the levels (of ground, water, etc.).

1686.  Burnet, Trav., iv. 238. The Tarpeian Rock is now of so small a fall, that a Man would think it no great matter, for his diversion to leap over it.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 191. You … know exactly what Fall there is from the Top of the Hill … to the Bottom.

1739.  C. Labelye, A Short Account … of Westminster Bridge, 11. The perpendicular Height of the Fall that might be expected under a Bridge.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 223. Its waters are … poured down, by a fall of an hundred and fifty feet perpendicular.

1881.  Salter, Guide Thames, 9. Hart’s Weir … has a fall of 3 ft.

  c.  Naut. (See quots.)

1644.  Manwaring, Seaman’s Dict., 38. When we mention the Falls of a ship … it is meant by the raising or laying some part of the Deck higher, or lower then the other.

1680.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1526/4. The Adventure Pink, Dogger built, two Decks, with a Fall where the Windles stand.

c. 1850.  Rudimentary Treatise on Navigation (Weale), 117. Fall. The descent of a deck from a fair curve lengthwise, as frequently in the upper deck of yachts or merchant ships, to give height to the commander’s cabin, and sometimes forward at the hawse-holes.

  9.  The sinking down of the fluid in a meteorological instrument. Said also of temperature, and loosely of the instrument itself.

1806.  G. Gregory, Dict. Arts & Sc., I. 204/3. The principal cause of the rise and fall of the mercury is from the variable winds which are found in the temperate zone, and whose great inconstancy in England is notorious.

1815.  T. Forster, Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena, 228. The rise of the Thermometer, which accompanies the fall of the Barometer.

1823.  Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale Fishery, 30. This sudden change of wind was the occasion of the most remarkable fall of temperature I ever witnessed.

1864.  Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. & Durh., I. 119. The violent falls in the barometer were not attended by corresponding disturbance of the air.

  10.  Mus. A sinking down or lowering of the note or voice; cadence.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., I. i. 4.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 251.

1706.  A. Bedford, Temple Mus., ix. 186–7. Might denote a fall in Musick, and then a rising again to the same sound, at the Beginning of a Tune, or after a Close.

1760.  Beattie, The Hermit, ii.

1855.  Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, III. ii § 14. I am uttering a connected series of words, and among these, one, two, or three, have by chance the echo of one of the falls of an old utterance; instantly I feel myself plunged in the entire current of the past, and may avail myself of any portion of it to serve my present end in speaking.

1879.  Geo. Eliot, A College Breakfast-Party, 682.

  11.  A sinking down or reduction in price, value, etc.; depreciation.

c. 1555.  Edw. VI., Jrnl. (1884), 39. There was a Proclamation fighed [signed] for shortening of the fall of the Mony.

1614.  Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 127. Another, in the extremitie of couctous follie, chooses to dy an vnpitied death; hanging himselfe for the fall of the market.

a. 1687.  Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 99. The natural fall of Interest, is the effect of the increase of Mony.

1708.  J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. II. xiii. (1743), 126. By the great Fall of Monies now, the Sheriffs Authority in that part is much diminished.

1814.  Stock Exchange Laid Open, 5. The speculator … anxiously looks for a fall.

1845.  M’Culloch, Taxation, II. xi. (1852), 380. The remarkable fall … in the prices of corn.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 189. A sudden fall of rents took place.

  III.  A falling from the erect posture.

  12.  A falling to the ground: a. of persons.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 537 (Cott.). Hijs fete him bers up fra fall.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 147. Fal, casus, lapsus.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 285. They cannot avoyd the fall whereof they be in danger.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., III. 82. Onely apprehended by a fall in his flight.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 224. The furious Risingh, in despite of that noble maxim, cherished by all true knights, that ‘fair play is a jewel,’ hastened to take advantage of the hero’s fall.

1853.  Lytton, My Novel, III. ii. He felt the shock of his fall the more, after the few paces he had walked.

  b.  of a building, etc.; fig. of an institution, etc.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 28853 (Cott.). A wall bateild fast wit-vten fall.

1535.  Coverdale, Matt. vii. 27. That housse, it fell, and great was the fall of it.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 282. Some are slaine with the soudaine ruine and fall of a bancke.

1661.  J. Childrey, Britannia Baconica, 131. Prophets generally are very compassionate to the rubbish of stately Piles, and the Elegies they commonly sing at their fall, are Prophesies of their re-edifying.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 447. He relates the fall of one of these wooden structures at Fidena.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 109. The other by a fall of a house.

  13.  Wrestling. The fact of being thrown on one’s back by an opponent; hence, a bout at wrestling. Phrases, To give, shake (Sc.), try, wrestle a fall. lit. and fig. Cf. FOIL.

1553.  Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 6. Not for one foyle or fal, so to be dismayd as with shame and dishonor to leaue wyth losse.

1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, I. ii. 216. Duk. You shall trie but one fall.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 76 a. Whosoeuer ouerthroweth his mate in such sort, as that either his backe, or the one shoulder, and contrary heele do touch the ground, is accounted to giue the fall.

1645.  R. Baillie, Lett. (1775), II. 111. We must wrestle a fall with some kind of creatures.

1676.  Cotton, Walton’s Angler, II. vi. (1836), II. 371. Let him [a fish] come, I’ll try a fall with him.

1686.  Dryden, Duchess of York’s Paper Defended, 125. As three Foils will go towards a Fall in Wrastling.

1768.  A. Ross, Helenore, I. 141.

1803.  R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 62. At rustlin, whilk o’ them dare try him a faw?

1855.  Kingsley, Heroes, II. iii. (1868), 216. I must wrestle a fall with him.

1868.  Times, 14 April, 6/5. France … was not then ready to try a fall with Prussia.

1883.  Standard, 24 March, 3/7. The final falls were wrestled between Moffatt and Kennedy.

  14.  A felling of trees; concr. the timber cut down at one season.

1572.  Nottingham Rec., IV. (1889), 141/29. In wyne iij. quartes that wase by Maister Mayr’s commandeme[n]t fetched to Adom Very house when the falle was appoynted xijd.

a. 1613.  Overbury, Newes, Newes fr. verie Countrie, Wks. (1856), 176. Justices of peace have the selling of underwoods, but the lords have the great fals.

1649.  Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652), 160. At every Fall, where thy Wood groweth thin, take a good straight Pole or sampler, growing of Ash or Willow, at the usuall growth of the Wood, and Plash it down to the Ground.

1707.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4373/4. The Fall of above 130 Acres of Wood Land … are to be sold.

1864.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXV. II. 314. Beech woods … are periodically thinned, and the fall used by wheelers and … chair-makers.

1879.  Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., s.v. ‘The young Squire says w’en ’e comes of age ’e’ll fall a sight o’ timber; an’ a grand fall theer’ll be.

  † b.  The roots and stumps of felled trees. Obs.

1785.  Phillips, Treat. Inland Nav., 40. Grubbing up the fall at fifty years, then planting again in the same place.

  c.  Marl-digging: (see quot.; cf. 19 d).

1847.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VIII. II. 313. They … proceed to make what are termed ‘falls’ … this is done by … undermining at the bottom … clay wedges shod with iron … driven in at top … and … the clay splits down perpendicularly.

  15.  Of a city or fortress: The fact of coming into the power of an enemy by capture or surrender.

1586.  A. Day, The English Secretary, I. (1625), 35. Achilles and Hector, that made the fall of Troy so famous.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1887), IV. 499. The fall and sack of great cities.

1816.  E. Baines, Hist. Wars Fr. Rev., I. xxiv. Immediately on the fall of Mantua, Bonaparte published a proclamation to his army.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 183. It was universally supposed that the fall of Londonderry could not be long delayed.

  16.  fig. A succumbing to temptation; a lapse into sin or folly. In stronger sense: Moral ruin.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 326. Þet fifte þing is muche scheome þet hit is, efter val, to liggen so longe.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9768 (Cott.).

c. 1450.  trans. T. à Kempis’ Imit., I. xxv. 37 The religiose man þat is wiþoute discipline is open to a greuous falle.

1503–4.  Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 28. Preamb. The Kinges Highnes … beyng sory for eny suche untrougth and fall of eny of his subiects.

1587.  Mirr. Mag., King Humber, xvi.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 415. He who before fel in overpleasing himself, begins to displease himself at his fall.

1758.  S. Hayward, Serm., xvii. 516. With what concern are they filled when they see or hear him dishonoured by prophane sinners, when they see the falls of those that profess a real love for him and consider their own ungenerous conduct and behaviour by which they have frequently offended him!

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. xiii. The moral fall of a fellow creature!

  b.  Theol. The fall, the fall of man: the sudden lapse into a sinful state produced by Adam’s transgression.

a. 1300.  [see prec.].

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 42. The other Sacramentes … were applied to mans nature after the fall.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Rem., Wks. (1660), 359. Mans will since the fall hath of it self no ability to any Spiritual Act.

1698.  J. Keill, Examination of Dr. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth (1734), 189. The Theorist … ridicul’d the Scriptural relation of the Fall.

1699.  Burnet, 39 Art., ix. 111. To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam: He himself was made liable to Death: But not barely to cease to live; for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture.

1875.  Manning, Mission H. Ghost, vi. 157. We are all conscious of the effect of the fall.

  † 17.  ellipt. for: The cause of a fall. Cf. to be the death of, etc. Obs.

1535.  Coverdale, Judg. ii. 3. I wil not dryue them out before you, that they maye be a fall vnto you.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. iv. 56. The fall of Angels, therefore, was pride.

1611.  Bible, Ecclus. v. 13. Honour and shame is in talke; and the tongue of man is his fall.

  18.  The fact of being struck down by calamity or disease, in battle, etc.; death, destruction, overthrow.

c. 1205.  Lay., 635. Þaet ne mihte þes kinges folc of heom fael makien.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 7933. Þi falle I dessyre.

1595.  Shaks., John, III. iv. 141. But what shall I gaine by yong Arthurs fall?

1611.  Bible, Judith viii. 19. Our fathers were giuen to the sword, & for a spoile, and had a great fall before our enemies.

1656.  B. Harris, trans. Parival’s The History of This Iron Age, 322. Now happened the fall of one of the greatest men in Europe … Oliver Cromwell.

1842.  Macaulay, Lays, Battle of the Lake Regillus, xxix.

  IV.  19. As a measure.

  † a.  The distance over which a measuring-rod ‘falls’; esp. in fall of the perch (= b). Obs.

  The general sense in the first quot. may have been merely inferred by Folkingham from the specific use.

1610.  W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. iv. 52. Lineal Fals. Lineall dimensions are diuersified according to the custome of the Country, as as Inches, Palmes, Spannes, Feete, Cubits, &c. Ibid., II. vii. 59. For Roodes and Acres, they differ in Content according to the power of the extent or lineall Fall of the Pearch.

  b.  A lineal measure (orig. = perch, pole, rod), the 40th part of a furlong, varying in actual extent according to the value locally assigned to this.

  App. peculiar to northern and north midland districts, where the furlong was larger than the present statute furlong.

1597.  Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Particata, Sa meikle lande as in measuring falles vnder the rod or raip, in length is called ane fall of measure, or ane lineall fall.

1662.  Dugdale, Hist. Imbanking & Draining, 165. Another [Gote] to be set fourscore falls beneath the old Sea Gote.

1869.  Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Fau’, a rood of lineal land-measure of seven yards.

  c.  The square measure corresponding to the above; the 160th part of a customary acre. Now only in Scotland, where it = 36 square ells.

[1319.  Charter Conishead Priory, Lancs., in Dugdale, Mon. (1661), II. 425. Concessionem … de duabus acris, & tribus rodis terræ, & triginta fallis.]

1597.  Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Particata, Ane superficiall fall of Lande … conteinis ane lineall fall of bredth and ane lineall fall of length.

1629.  Manch. Court Leet Rec. (1886), III. 152. Adam Smith hath purchased … ffoure ffalles of land.

1760.  in Scotsman, 20 Aug. (1885), 5/3. Fourteen acres, thirty-three falls, and six ells of ground.

1827.  Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 343. The trenching or double-digging may be executed, at the rate of 9d. or 10d. per Scotch Fall (which is about one fifth part larger than the English Pole or Rod).

1864.  A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock, 303. The Green then measured eighty-seven falls, of which twenty-four were to be feued.

  d.  Marl-digging. A measure of 64 cubic yards. (Perh. not in any way connected with the preceding: see 14 c.)

1849.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., X. I. 27. The marl is calculated [in Lancashire] by the fall, which is 64 cubic yards.

  V.  A falling to one’s share; a happening, occurrence.

  † 20.  What befalls or happens to a person; one’s fortune, ‘case’ or condition, lot, appointed duty, etc. Obs.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 8117. Thy fall and þi faith is foule loste.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xii. 304. Fowle fall have I now yf I feyne me now. Ibid. (c. 1489), Blanchardyn and Eglantine, xx. 68. Held her hert so esprised & so ouer pressid wyth loue that she had to blanchardyn that she myght noo lenger hyde her falle.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), P. For hit is an infallyble rule of enuious fortune, that this present felicitie is gyuen with a prycke of a sodayne falle of mischaunce.

1631.  Heywood, Fair Maid of West, IV. Wks. 1874, II. 393.

1721.  Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 557. It is my fall to go to the next Assembly.

1785–6.  Burns, Address to Deil, xvi. Black be your fa!

1832–53.  Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs), Ser. III. 121.

  † 21.  The date of occurrence (of days). Obs.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 66. [The almanac may be useful] to distinguish winter from sommer, spring from haruest, the change of the moone, the fall of euerie day.

  † 22.  The descent (of an estate, etc.). Obs. rare.

1579.  J. Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, D iij. Noble men and other great landed ones at thys day haue, who in their vsuall conueighances do marshall the fal of theyr inheritances by limitation vpon limitation euen to the tenth son of theyr body begotten.

  VI.  In various concrete applications.

  23.  An article of dress. a. A band or collar worn falling flat round the neck, in fashion during the seventeenth century.

1599.  Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. Wks. 1856, III. 223.

1608.  Machin, etc., Dumb Knight, I. in Hazl., Dodsley, X. 121–2. The hood, the rebato, the French fall, the loose-bodied gown, the pin in the hair.

1640.  G. H., Wit’s Recreations, No. 250. A question tis why women weare a fall.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, III. viii. His lordship was represented in his scarlet uniform … with … a fall of Bruxelles lace.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Fall, a border of lace to the neck-part or body of a lady’s evening dress.

  b.  A kind of veil worn by women; esp. one hanging from the front of the bonnet.

1611.  Tourneur, The Atheist’s Tragedie, IV. i. Cata. Wilt please your Ladyship goe up into the Closet? There are those Falles and Tyres I tolde you of.

1818.  Miss Ferrier, Marriage, xxiv. The Chantilly fall which embellished the front of her bonnet.

1865.  Ann. Reg., 48. Miss Kent wore a thick fall, which almost screened her face from view.

  c.  In various applications: (see quots.)

1634.  T. Carew, Cœlum Britannicum, 2. Mercury descends … upon his head a wreath with smal fals of white Feathers.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 258/1. Some … have … Falls or long Cufts to hang over the Hands.

1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 112. The Montera or Spanish cap, made with a fall to cover their neck and shoulders.

1865.  Mrs. Palliser, Lace, iv. 53. The bride and her ladies wore their sleeves covered up to the shoulders with falls of the finest Brussels lace, and a tucker of the same material.

  24.  Bot. in pl. Those parts or petals of a flower which bend downward.

1794.  Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xiv. 155. The three outermost of these parts or petals are bent downwards, and are thence called falls.

1882.  The Garden, XXI. 22 April, 284/2. The ‘falls’ in M. gracilis are pure ivory-white, affording a striking contrast with the small inner petals, which are of a rich cœrulean hue, barred transversely with cinnamon-red.

  25.  The moveable front of a piano, which comes down over the key-board.

  26.  Mech. The loose end of the tackle, to which the power is applied in hoisting.

1644.  Manwaring, Seaman’s Dict., 38. The small roapes which we hale-by in all tackles, is called the fall of the tackle.

1752.  Smeaton, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 494–5. The last line, by which the draught is made (or, as it is commonly called, the fall of the tackle) must necessarily be upon the outside pulley or shieve.

1828.  J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 184. 7. Carries the levers and hand-spikes, assists number 6 in passing the fall round the windlass, and holds on next to him.

1848.  Layard, Nineveh, II. xiii. 80. The ropes by which the sculpture was to be lowered were passed through these blocks, the ends or falls of the tackle, as they are technically called, being led from the blocks above the second bull, and held by the Arabs.

  b.  An apparatus for lowering bales, etc.; also Naut. in pl.

1832.  Marryat, N. Forster, x. Overhaul the boat’s falls, and bring to with the windlass.

1860.  [see 29 fall-way].

1881.  W. C. Russell, Sailor’s Sweetheart, I. viii. 289. The port boat’s falls were also provided with patent hooks, which sprang open and released the boat the moment she touched the water, and relieved the hooks of her weight.

  † 27.  An alleged name for a covey or flight (of woodcocks). Obs.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Hors, Shepe. & G., 30. Hence 1486. Bk. St. Alban’s, F vj b.

  VII.  attrib. and Comb.

  28.  a. attributive (sense 2), as fall-feed, -plowing, etc. b. objective (sense 13), as fall-giver, -taker.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, I. 76. Taking hold onely aboue girdle, wearing a girdle to take hold by, playing three pulles, for tryall of the mastery, the fall-giuer to be exempted from playing againe with the taker, and bound to answere his successour.

1677.  W. Hubbard, Narrative, II. 14. The ancient Indians being asked what they thought was meet to be done in the said case, said he was worthy to die for such an affront, yet they would be glad if his life might be spared, offering to be jointly bound in his behalf, to pay 40 beaver skins at the next fall voyage.

1788.  Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1887, I. 286. Passengers were engag’d in all, and some extremely impatient to be gone, and the merchants uneasy about their letters, and the orders they had given for insurance (it being war time) for fall goods!

1821.  in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 3. Whole families were frequently swept off by the ‘fall-fever.’

1848.  Chandler, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. II. 524. All the manure from the fall-feed is left where made.

1856.  Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, 663. The improvement had been effected entirely by draining and fall-plowing.

  29.  Special comb.: fall-board, a shutter hinged at the bottom; † fall-bridge, a boarding-bridge attached to the side of a ship; fall-cloud (see quot.); fall-(iron) door (see quot.); fall-fish (see quot.); fall-gate, dial. (see quot.); fall-pippin U.S., a certain variety of apple; fall-trap = FALL sb.²; fall-way see quot.; fall-wind, a sudden gust; † fall-window = fall-board; † fall-wood, wood that has fallen or been blown down.

1820.  Blackw. Mag., June, 281/1. The old woman, my conductress, pitied me, and pulling a pair of *‘fall-boards’ belonging to a window, instantly opened, and through the apertures the smoke escaped in volumes.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 419.

1823.  T. Forster, Atmos. Phenom., i. § 4 (ed. 3), 12. heading. Of the Stratus or *Fallcloud.

1837.  C. V. Incledon, Taunus, 207. A *fall iron door, which answered the double purpose of door, and drawbridge.

1812.  J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 31–2. Several of our company angled successfully for trout, and a delicious chub, which we call a *fall-fish.

14[?].  Brome Commpl. Bk. (1886), 165. Ony mane yat hath noȝte hangyd his *fal-ȝates at resonable tymes.

1795.  Marshall, E. Norf. Gloss. (E.D S.). Fall-gate, a gate across a public road.

1886.  Holland, Chester Gloss. Fall-gate, a gate across the high road.

1817–8.  Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 16. The wind is knocking down the *fall-pipins for us.

1885.  Roe, Driven back to Eden, 262. Fall pippins and greenings.

c. 1450.  Henryson, Uplandis Mous & Burges Mous, 90, Poems (1865), 111.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), III. VII. i. 213. Deadly gins and falltraps.

1860.  Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, *Fall-way. The opening or well through which goods are raised and lowered by a fall.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk. *Fall-wind.

1422.  Searchers Verdicts, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 16. The *falle wyndow to ye streteward abyde still wyth the place.

c. 1524.  Churchw. Acc. St. Mary Hill, London (Nichols, 1797), 126. Two lode of *fawle wode.

1528.  Papers Earls of Cumberland, in Whitaker’s Hist. Craven (1812), 308. Item, 3 load of falwood and bavings, 3s. 4d.

  30.  With adverbs forming combs. (rarely occurring in literary use) expressing the action of the corresponding verbal combinations (FALL v. XI); as fall-off, fall-out, etc.

1862.  Sala, Accepted Addr., 145. A ferocious fall-out about an abominable little Skye terrier.

1889.  Pall Mall G., 23 Aug., 2/1. A steady income from advertisements makes a slight fall off in the sale of less consequence.