Fall, n.
1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.
2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was walking on ice, and had a fall.
3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin.
They thy fall conspire. --Denham.
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. --Prov. xvi. 18.
4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire.
Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. --Pope.
5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town ; as, the fall of Sebastopol.
6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents.
7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.
8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.
9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.
10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice.
11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water of a stream has a fall of five feet.
12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.
What crowds of patients the town doctor kills,
Or how, last fall, he raised the weekly bills. --Dryden.
13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of snow.
14. The act of felling or cutting down. “The fall of timber.”
15. Lapse or declension from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.
16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a faule.
17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting.
Fall herring Zool., a herring of the Atlantic (Clupea mediocris); -- also called tailor herring, and hickory shad.
To try a fall, to try a bout at wrestling. --Shak.
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