fall back on

Idioms  

1. Also, fall back upon. Rely on, have recourse to, as in I fall back on old friends in time of need, or When he lost his job he had to fall back upon his savings. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fall back on

"When panicked, people fall back on their instinctive responses, and don't read small print in a dark and possibly smoke-filled cabin."

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

For cloud-computing giants, though, there is something of a reprieve: At least they could fall back on the tried-and-true business model that sustained them before AI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

The most obvious drawback is that you’ll have less money to fall back on.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026

When imagination fails, the boys fall back on “formats”—copy-and-paste scripts traded online and passed phone to phone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

I let my head fall back on the seat and tried not to think about anything but mountains.

From "The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart