1. In intransitive senses.
c. 1300. Cursor M., 1853 (Cott.).
| Abute fiue monetz was þat it stud, | |
| Wit-outen falling þat fers fludd. |
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 10–1. She felle into a welle that was twenty fadom depe, and in her fallyng cried helpe on oure lady.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 13 § 13. From the tyme of the falling of theym [lambs] unto the feast of … Seynt John Baptyste.
1563. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 55 b. Sleet is generated even as Snow, but of lesse cold, or else beginneth to melt in the falling.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Ravallement … a falling in price, as the falling of the market.
1621. Sanderson, Serm., I. 214. Vzza had better have ventured the falling, than the fingering of the ark.
1771. Mrs. Griffith, trans. Viaud’s Shipwreck, 109. The falling of night would otherwise have forced us to lay aside our labour.
1810. T. Thomson, A System of Chemistry (ed. 4), II. 412. Distil by a heat so moderate, that about two seconds elapse between the falling of the drops of alcohol from the beak of the receiver.
1839. Longf., Hyperion, I. vii. (1865), 38. The silent falling of snow is to me one of the most solemn things in nature.
2. In various specific applications. a. The falling of the leaf: autumn. b. Setting (of the sun). c. Pathol. (see quot. 1884. d. In the barometer, etc. e. Mus. Cf. FALL v. 17.
a. 1503. Hawes, The Example of Virtue, i. 5.
| In Septembre in fallynge of the lefe | |
| Whan phebus made his declynacyon | |
| And all the whete gadred was in the shefe | |
| By radyaunt hete and operacyon. |
b. 1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 66. From these Ilandes Colonus directynge his viage towarde the weste, folowinge the fallinge of the sonne, but declining somwhat towarde the left hande, fayled on forwarde. xxxiii. dayes continually, hauynge onely the fruition of the heauen and the water.
c. c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 303. For fallinge of þe maris þat is cleped dislocacioun of the maris.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Falling of the womb, a popular term for Prolapsus uteri.
d. 1658. Willsford, Natures Secrets, 154. The often rising and falling of the water [in a weather-glass] shews the outward Air very mutable … and the weather unconstant.
1688. J. Smith, Baroscope, 65. If Wet and Rainy Weather come presently upon the Mercury’s Falling, and the Mercury does at that time fall but a little, then expect not much Wet at that time, for the Rain will not then hold long.
1814. W. C. Wells, Ess. Dew, 9. The falling of the mercury in the barometer.
1860. Adm. Fitz-Roy, in Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 340. Indications of approaching changes … are shown … by its [the barometer’s] falling or rising.
e. 1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., I. vi. 17. In the falling of a Song, let the lower be changed into the higher, in the rising contrarily.
1674. Simpson, in Campion, Art of Descant, 4, footnote. If the Bass do rise more than a fourth, it must be called falling.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., ix. 186. A falling by a Leap, at the Beginning of a Strain.
3. In transitive senses.
1580. Lease, in Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 237. At every falling he will leave for every acre fallen … twelve trees.
1699. Luttrell, Brief. Rel. (1857), IV. 483. Then ordered Mr. Grascomb, a nonjuring parson, to be prosecuted by Mr. attorney general, for writing a libell against the last parliament about their falling of guineas.
† 4. A depression in the soil; a hollow, declivity, slope. Obs.
1563. Golding, Cæsar, 61 b. Abandoning vp all theyr Townes and Castels conueyed all their goods into one towne of nature excellently wel fortified: the which on al parts round about hauing most high rockes and steepe fallings, had left on one syde an ascent gentlye rising by littel and littel, not passing two hundred fote brode.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1622), 250. Amphialus embushed his footemen in the falling of a hill.
1684. R. H., Sch. Recreat., 83. Have your Judgment about you to observe and distinguish the Risings, Fallings, and Advantages of the Places where you Bowl.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 21. Gardens on a perfect Level are certainly the best, as well for the Conveniency of walking, as for that their long Alleys and Glades, having no Risings, nor Fallings, are less chargeable to keep than others.
5. concr. Something that falls or has fallen. a. A fragment (of a building); a ruin. b. usually in pl. A dropping, a windfall. Also fig.
a. 1382. Wyclif, Isa. lxi. 4. And olde fallingus thei shul rere, and thei shul restore cities forsaken.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 214. A great part of it … is … almost couered with the aforesayd fallings.
b. 1608. Yorksh. Trag., I. i. Apples hanging longer on the tree than when they are ripe, make so many fallings; viz. mad wenches, because they are not gathered in time, are fain to drop of themselves, and then ’tis common you know for every man to take them up.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 180. Virro was capable of such caduca, such fallings, or as the use and metaphore in our language allows it, such wind-falls.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 103.
| Yours be the harvest, ’tis the beggars gain | |
| To glean the fallings of the loaded wain. |
1847–78. Halliwell, Fallings, dropped fruit. South.
6. With adverbs, expressing the action of the vbl. combinations under FALL v. XI.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Fallynge downe, idem est quod Fallynge evylle.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Catarrhe … the Catarre or fallyng downe of humours.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 401. The falling from of his Friendes.
1611. Bible, 2 Thess. ii. 3. That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.
1656. B. Harris, trans. Parival’s The History of This Iron Age, 200. They … observed the falling back of the French.
1712. W. Rogers, Voy., 325. The Metal is brought up on Mens Backs to the great Danger of their Lives, besides Numbers that are lost by the falling in of the Earth.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VII. v. 26. If this be the case, all her falling away, and her fainting fits, are charmingly accounted for.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 181. It is this absorption of the processes that causes the falling away of the gums after extraction.
b. Falling off: the action of the vb. Fall off (FALL v. 91); decadence, defection, diminution.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 47. Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there.
1709. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 111, 24 Dec., ¶ 4. A certain looseness of principles, and a falling-off from those Schemes of Thinking, which conduce to the happiness and perfection of human nature.
1802. T. Beddoes, Hygëia, vii. Should it be accompanied by falling off in flesh.
1834. Brit. Husb., III. 60. A falling off of the milk is immediately noticed.
1837. Whittier, Barclay of Ury, xv.
| Hard to feel the stranger’s scoff, | |
| Hard the old friend’s falling off. |
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, The Cream of Leicestershire, 155. It cannot but be noted, too, that Miss Hemming rode well to the front throughout; and that the grey showed no falling off from his previous form over Leicestershire.
c. Falling out: the action of the vb. Fall out (FALL v. 93), disagreement, quarrel; also † ending.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 97. This fallyng out of king John with … Geoffrey Archebishop of Yorke.
1586. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 56. The falling out of verses together in one like sounde, is commonly called in English, Ryme.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 194. I have heard of a falling out between my Lord Arlington … and W. Coventry.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, III. 337. We had a sad Falling-out t’other Day.
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, I. 251.
| And blessings on the falling out | |
| That all the more endears. |
