Fall sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary

Fall sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1901, rev. 2022. 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.

1   I.  A falling from a height.

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

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

4 a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2322.        Nis nawt grislich sihðe to seon fallen þæt þing þæt schal arisen, þurh þæt fal, a þusent falt te fehere.

5 1393.  Gower, Conf., I. 15. Betwene two stooles is the fall.

6 1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 154. An other pitiyng his fall, asked him … how got you into that pitte?

7 1563.  Fulke, Meteors, 8. By the fall of them [the starres], both thunder and lightning are caused.

8 1599.  Shaks., Pass. Pilgr., 136.        Like a greene plumbe that hangs vpon a tree: And fals (through winde) before the fall should be.

9 1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 76.        The companions of his fall, o’erwhelm’d With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, He soon discerns.

10 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.

11 1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xi. 13.        Calm and deep peace in this wide air,     These leaves that redden to the fall;     And in my heart, if calm at all, If any calm, a calm despair.

12 1851.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 25. Fall, a dropping down of the roof stone.

13 1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 84. Fixing my feet suddenly in the snow, [I] endeavoured to check his fall.

14 1863.  Kingsley, Water-bab., 297. That was all in his day’s work like a fair fall with the hounds.

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

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

17 c. 1430.  Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 53.        Min hert so high set haue I, A fall I drede to haue therby!

18 1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 6 b. Whom they moost auaunce … they … gyue them the greater fall.

19 1679.  Burnet, Hist. Ref., an. 1543, I. III. 326. Doctor London … did now, upon Cromwell’s fall, apply himself to Gardiner.

20 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.

21 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.

22 1874.  Green, Short Hist., viii. 582. Puritanism was far from being dead; it drew indeed a nobler life from its very fall.

23   c.  concr. That which falls; also pl.

24 1742.  Young, Nt. Th., ix. 63.        ’Tis brandish’d still; nor shall the present year Be more tenacious of her human leaf, Or spread of feeble life a thinner fall.

25 1844.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 268. The short and broken [straw] … goes away in what is technically termed ‘falls’ or pulls.

26 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.

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

28 1593.  Shaks., The Rape of Lucrece, 551.        From earths dark-womb, some gentle gust doth get,   Which blow these pitchie vapours from their biding:   Hindring their present fall by this deviding.

29 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.

30 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.

31 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.

32 1833.  Penny Cycl., I. 151/1. Aërolites, when taken up soon after their fall, are extremely hot.

33 1858.  Longf., Children, iii.        In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,   In your thoughts the brooklet’s flow, But in mine is the wind of Autumn,   And the first fall of the snow.

34 1871.  Lockyer, Astron., iii. § 316. 139. Among the largest aërolitic falls of modern times we may mention the following.

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

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

37 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.

38 1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 229. They are best when leanest…. At the fall and dead of Winter.

39 1816.  Keats, Poems, To my Brothers.          Upon the lore so voluble and deep, That aye at fall of night our care condoles.

40 1823.  Byron, Juan, VII. lvi.        Some Cossacques, hovering like hawks round a hill,   Had met a party towards the twilight’s fall.

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

42 1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 25.        For neuer two such Kingdomes did contend, Without much fall of blood.

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

44 1520.  Calisto & Melib., in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 78.        Wrinkling in the face, lack of sight and hearing; Hollowness of mouth, fall of teeth, faint of going.

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

46 1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 111.        Put in their hands thy bruising Irons of wrath, That they may crush downe with a heauy fall, Th’vsurping Helmets of our Aduersaries.     Ibid. (1604), Oth. II. iii. 324. I heard the clink and fall of swords.

47   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.

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

49 1599.  Raleigh, Reply to Marlowe, Poems (Aldine ed.), 11.        A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall.

50 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.

51 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.

52 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.

53 1752.  J. Edwards, Wks. (1834), I. p. cxcv/1. I thank you for your letter … which I received this fall.

54 1826.  Scott, Mal. Malagr., i. 10. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall.

55 1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 379. The winter pruning should be performed … at the fall of the leaf.

56 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.

57 1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. xlvii. 38. It was in the fall apparently of the year 791 that Agrippa sailed for the East.

58 1864.  Lowell, Biglow P., Poet. Wks. (1879), 255. Frosts have been unusually backward this fall.

59   fig.  1727.  Philip Quarll (1816), 82.        Various affairs will cause a world of woes; Then in the fall of life how sweet’s repose!

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

61 1535.  Coverdale, Prov. xvi. 33. The lottes are cast in to the lappe, but their fall stondeth in the Lorde.

62 1885.  Proctor, Whist, iv. 60. The fall of the cards in the first suit may … lead him to do so.

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

64 1796.  Hull Advertiser, 14 May, 1/4. The largest fall of lambs this year almost ever known.

65 1831.  Howitt, Seasons, March, 72–3. The principal fall of lambs takes place now, and the shepherds are full of cares.

66 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.

67   II.  A sinking to a lower level.

68   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.

69 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.

70 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.

71 1598.  Chapman, Iliad, II. 396. In their falls [fowl] lay out such throats, that [etc.].

72 1607.  Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 214. Now they are at fall, want Treature.

73 1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 264. The perpendicular rise and fall of the spring-tides is fifteen feet, and at neap-tides, eight feet.

74 1868–70.  Morris, Earthly Par. (1890), 168/2. The wide sun reddened towards his fall.

75   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.

76   b.  Astrol. (See quot.)

77 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.

78 1819.  in J. Wilson, Dict. Astrol, 99.

79 1835.  in ‘Zadkiel,’ Lilly’s Introd. Astrol., 337.

80   c.  fig. Decline, decay.

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

82 1682.  Otway, Venice Preserved, IV. i. Remember him that prop’d the fall of Venice.

83 1864.  Glasgow Herald, 12 Nov. A country that was in the utmost state of fall and degradation.

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

85 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.

86 1712.  Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, II. 98.        Th’ advent’rous Merchant thus pursues his Way Or to the Rise, or to the Fall of Day.

87 1800–24.  Campbell, Poems, Caroline, II. To Evening Star, v.        O! sacred to the fall of day,   Queen of propitious stars, appear, And early rise, and long delay,   When Caroline herself is here!

88 1882.  Besant, Revolt of Man, i. (1883), 8. The older pictures were mostly the heads of men, taken in the fall of life.

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

90 1577–87.  Harrison, Descr. Brit., xii., in Holinshed, 53. The greatest rivers, into whose mouthes or falles shippes might find safe entrance.

91 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.

92   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.

93 1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., April, 36.        His laye … he made, as by a spring he lay, And tuned it vnto the Waters fall.

94 1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VII. 318. The fall and roaring of Nyle.

95 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.

96 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.

97 1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 9. Of the falls in the Rhine, near Schaffhausen.

98 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.

99 1806.  Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2), 92. The falls of Clyde principally interest the stranger.

100 1832.  Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, ix. 116. On that fall of the stream will be our mill.

101 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.

102   † b.  That over which water falls. Obs.

103 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.

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

105 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.

106 [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.]

107   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.

108 1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Abruptum … that hath such a fal or stipenesse downe, that a man cannot go but fall downe.

109 1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 615. Neither doth this circle shine in the concauitie or in the fall of the gem.

110 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.

111 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.

112 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.

113 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.

114 1858.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XIX. I. 188. Most of the Weald lands have a good fall for draining.

115 1865.  Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, vii. 87. The girls ran to the spot, and saw a little fall in the ground.

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

117 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.

118 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.

119 1739.  C. Labelye, A Short Account … of Westminster Bridge, 11. The perpendicular Height of the Fall that might be expected under a Bridge.

120 1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 223. Its waters are … poured down, by a fall of an hundred and fifty feet perpendicular.

121 1881.  Salter, Guide Thames, 9. Hart’s Weir … has a fall of 3 ft.

122   c.  Naut. (See quots.)

123 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.

124 1680.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1526/4. The Adventure Pink, Dogger built, two Decks, with a Fall where the Windles stand.

125 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.

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

127 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.

128 1815.  T. Forster, Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena, 228. The rise of the Thermometer, which accompanies the fall of the Barometer.

129 1823.  Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale Fishery, 30. This sudden change of wind was the occasion of the most remarkable fall of temperature I ever witnessed.

130 1864.  Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. & Durh., I. 119. The violent falls in the barometer were not attended by corresponding disturbance of the air.

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

132 1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., I. i. 4.        That straine agen, it had a dying fall: O, it came ore my eare, like the sweet sound That breathes vpon a banke of Violets; Stealing, and giuing Odour.

133 1634.  Milton, Comus, 251.        At every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smil’d!

134 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.

135 1760.  Beattie, The Hermit, ii.        Ah! why, all abandoned to darkness and woe, Why, lone Philomela, that languishing fall? For spring shall return, and a lover bestow, And sorrow no longer thy bosom inthrall.

136 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.

137 1879.  Geo. Eliot, A College Breakfast-Party, 682.        And Mortal sorrows when they reach our ears Are dying falls to melody divine.

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

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

140 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.

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

142 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.

143 1814.  Stock Exchange Laid Open, 5. The speculator … anxiously looks for a fall.

144 1845.  M’Culloch, Taxation, II. xi. (1852), 380. The remarkable fall … in the prices of corn.

145 1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 189. A sudden fall of rents took place.

146   III.  A falling from the erect posture.

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

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

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

150 1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 285. They cannot avoyd the fall whereof they be in danger.

151 1632.  Lithgow, Trav., III. 82. Onely apprehended by a fall in his flight.

152 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.

153 1853.  Lytton, My Novel, III. ii. He felt the shock of his fall the more, after the few paces he had walked.

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

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

156 1535.  Coverdale, Matt. vii. 27. That housse, it fell, and great was the fall of it.

157 1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 282. Some are slaine with the soudaine ruine and fall of a bancke.

158 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.

159 1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 447. He relates the fall of one of these wooden structures at Fidena.

160 1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 109. The other by a fall of a house.

161   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.

162 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.

163 1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, I. ii. 216. Duk. You shall trie but one fall.

164 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.

165 1645.  R. Baillie, Lett. (1775), II. 111. We must wrestle a fall with some kind of creatures.

166 1676.  Cotton, Walton’s Angler, II. vi. (1836), II. 371. Let him [a fish] come, I’ll try a fall with him.

167 1686.  Dryden, Duchess of York’s Paper Defended, 125. As three Foils will go towards a Fall in Wrastling.

168 1768.  A. Ross, Helenore, I. 141.        Fu’ o’ good nature, sharp an snell witha’, And kibble grown at shaking of a fa’.

169 1803.  R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 62. At rustlin, whilk o’ them dare try him a faw?

170 1855.  Kingsley, Heroes, II. iii. (1868), 216. I must wrestle a fall with him.

171 1868.  Times, 14 April, 6/5. France … was not then ready to try a fall with Prussia.

172 1883.  Standard, 24 March, 3/7. The final falls were wrestled between Moffatt and Kennedy.

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

174 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.

175 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.

176 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.

177 1707.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4373/4. The Fall of above 130 Acres of Wood Land … are to be sold.

178 1864.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXV. II. 314. Beech woods … are periodically thinned, and the fall used by wheelers and … chair-makers.

179 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.

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

181 1785.  Phillips, Treat. Inland Nav., 40. Grubbing up the fall at fifty years, then planting again in the same place.

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

183 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.

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

185 1586.  A. Day, The English Secretary, I. (1625), 35. Achilles and Hector, that made the fall of Troy so famous.

186 1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1887), IV. 499. The fall and sack of great cities.

187 1816.  E. Baines, Hist. Wars Fr. Rev., I. xxiv. Immediately on the fall of Mantua, Bonaparte published a proclamation to his army.

188 1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 183. It was universally supposed that the fall of Londonderry could not be long delayed.

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

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

191 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9768 (Cott.).        Adam … moght wit na chance Of his fall get gain couerance.

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

193 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.

194 1587.  Mirr. Mag., King Humber, xvi.        And let my folly, fall, and rashnes, bee A glasse wherein to see if thou do swerue.

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

196 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!

197 1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. xiii. The moral fall of a fellow creature!

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

199 a. 1300.  [see prec.].

200 1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 42. The other Sacramentes … were applied to mans nature after the fall.

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

202 1698.  J. Keill, Examination of Dr. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth (1734), 189. The Theorist … ridicul’d the Scriptural relation of the Fall.

203 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.

204 1875.  Manning, Mission H. Ghost, vi. 157. We are all conscious of the effect of the fall.

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

206 1535.  Coverdale, Judg. ii. 3. I wil not dryue them out before you, that they maye be a fall vnto you.

207 1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. iv. 56. The fall of Angels, therefore, was pride.

208 1611.  Bible, Ecclus. v. 13. Honour and shame is in talke; and the tongue of man is his fall.

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

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

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

212 1595.  Shaks., John, III. iv. 141. But what shall I gaine by yong Arthurs fall?

213 1611.  Bible, Judith viii. 19. Our fathers were giuen to the sword, & for a spoile, and had a great fall before our enemies.

214 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.

215 1842.  Macaulay, Lays, Battle of the Lake Regillus, xxix.        And women rent their tresses   For their great prince’s fall And old men girt on their old swords,   And went to man the wall.

216   IV.  19. As a measure.

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

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

219 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.

220   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.

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

222 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.

223 1662.  Dugdale, Hist. Imbanking & Draining, 165. Another [Gote] to be set fourscore falls beneath the old Sea Gote.

224 1869.  Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Fau’, a rood of lineal land-measure of seven yards.

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

226 [1319.  Charter Conishead Priory, Lancs., in Dugdale, Mon. (1661), II. 425. Concessionem … de duabus acris, & tribus rodis terræ, & triginta fallis.]

227 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.

228 1629.  Manch. Court Leet Rec. (1886), III. 152. Adam Smith hath purchased … ffoure ffalles of land.

229 1760.  in Scotsman, 20 Aug. (1885), 5/3. Fourteen acres, thirty-three falls, and six ells of ground.

230 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).

231 1864.  A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock, 303. The Green then measured eighty-seven falls, of which twenty-four were to be feued.

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

233 1849.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., X. I. 27. The marl is calculated [in Lancashire] by the fall, which is 64 cubic yards.

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

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

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

237 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.

238 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.

239 1631.  Heywood, Fair Maid of West, IV. Wks. 1874, II. 393.          Bess.  What must my next fall be? I that this morning Was rich in wealth and servant, and e’re noon Commanded neither; and next doom’d to death.

240 1721.  Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 557. It is my fall to go to the next Assembly.

241 1785–6.  Burns, Address to Deil, xvi. Black be your fa!

242 1832–53.  Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs), Ser. III. 121.        Fair be thy fa! my Phœbe Graeme,—   Enraptured now I see The smile upon thy bonny face,   That wont to welcome me.

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

244 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.

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

246 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.

247   VI.  In various concrete applications.

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

249 1599.  Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. Wks. 1856, III. 223.        Nay, he doth weare an embleme ’bout his neck; For under that fayre ruffe so sprucely set, Appeares a fall, a falling-band forsooth!

250 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.

251 1640.  G. H., Wit’s Recreations, No. 250. A question tis why women weare a fall.

252 1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, III. viii. His lordship was represented in his scarlet uniform … with … a fall of Bruxelles lace.

253 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Fall, a border of lace to the neck-part or body of a lady’s evening dress.

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

255 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.

256 1818.  Miss Ferrier, Marriage, xxiv. The Chantilly fall which embellished the front of her bonnet.

257 1865.  Ann. Reg., 48. Miss Kent wore a thick fall, which almost screened her face from view.

258   c.  In various applications: (see quots.)

259 1634.  T. Carew, Cœlum Britannicum, 2. Mercury descends … upon his head a wreath with smal fals of white Feathers.

260 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 258/1. Some … have … Falls or long Cufts to hang over the Hands.

261 1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 112. The Montera or Spanish cap, made with a fall to cover their neck and shoulders.

262 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.

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

264 1794.  Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xiv. 155. The three outermost of these parts or petals are bent downwards, and are thence called falls.

265 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.

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

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

268 1644.  Manwaring, Seaman’s Dict., 38. The small roapes which we hale-by in all tackles, is called the fall of the tackle.

269 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.

270 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.

271 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.

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

273 1832.  Marryat, N. Forster, x. Overhaul the boat’s falls, and bring to with the windlass.

274 1860.  [see 29 fall-way].

275 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.

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

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

278   VII.  attrib. and Comb.

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

280 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.

281 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.

282 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!

283 1821.  in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 3. Whole families were frequently swept off by the ‘fall-fever.’

284 1848.  Chandler, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. II. 524. All the manure from the fall-feed is left where made.

285 1856.  Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, 663. The improvement had been effected entirely by draining and fall-plowing.

286   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.

287 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.

288 1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 419.        That thai the schip on na maner Micht ger cum till the vail so neir That thair *fall-brig mycht reik thar-till.

289 1823.  T. Forster, Atmos. Phenom., i. § 4 (ed. 3), 12. heading. Of the Stratus or *Fallcloud.

290 1837.  C. V. Incledon, Taunus, 207. A *fall iron door, which answered the double purpose of door, and drawbridge.

291 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.

292 14[?].  Brome Commpl. Bk. (1886), 165. Ony mane yat hath noȝte hangyd his *fal-ȝates at resonable tymes.

293 1795.  Marshall, E. Norf. Gloss. (E.D S.). Fall-gate, a gate across a public road.

294 1886.  Holland, Chester Gloss. Fall-gate, a gate across the high road.

295 1817–8.  Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 16. The wind is knocking down the *fall-pipins for us.

296 1885.  Roe, Driven back to Eden, 262. Fall pippins and greenings.

297 c. 1450.  Henryson, Uplandis Mous & Burges Mous, 90, Poems (1865), 111.        I haif housis anew of greit defence; Of cat, nor *fall-trap, I haif na dreid.

298 1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), III. VII. i. 213. Deadly gins and falltraps.

299 1860.  Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, *Fall-way. The opening or well through which goods are raised and lowered by a fall.

300 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk. *Fall-wind.

301 1422.  Searchers Verdicts, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 16. The *falle wyndow to ye streteward abyde still wyth the place.

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

303 1528.  Papers Earls of Cumberland, in Whitaker’s Hist. Craven (1812), 308. Item, 3 load of falwood and bavings, 3s. 4d.

304   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.

305 1862.  Sala, Accepted Addr., 145. A ferocious fall-out about an abominable little Skye terrier.

306 1889.  Pall Mall G., 23 Aug., 2/1. A steady income from advertisements makes a slight fall off in the sale of less consequence.

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