fall on
Britishverb
-
Also: fall upon. to attack or snatch (an army, booty, etc)
-
to fail, esp in a ridiculous or humiliating manner
-
to emerge unexpectedly well from a difficult situation
-
Also, fall upon.
-
Attack suddenly and viciously, as in They fell on the guards and overpowered them . [c. 1400]
-
Meet with, encounter, as in They fell on hard times . [Late 1500s]
-
Find by chance, discover, as in We fell upon the idea last Saturday night . [Mid-1600s]
-
Be the responsibility or duty of someone, as in It fell on Clara to support the entire family . [Mid-1800s] Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with fall on .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Times reported last fall on allegations of fabricated claims filed by plaintiffs within the settlement, which prompted L.A.
From Los Angeles Times
The man was injured following a fall on Aonach Mor at about 14:00 on Tuesday.
From BBC
China's defending champion Gu, who has already won two silver medals in Italy, stayed on track for her first gold of the Milan-Cortina Games despite a fall on her first run.
From Barron's
The next $270 million would be covered by California state taxpayers, and any losses beyond that would again fall on Los Angeles.
Samantha Prince, pensions expert at Penn State Dickinson Law, points out in a new paper how heavily the costs of stock-market “volatility” — that lovely Wall Street euphemism — fall on those often least able to bear them.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
