fall on
Britishverb
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Also: fall upon. to attack or snatch (an army, booty, etc)
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to fail, esp in a ridiculous or humiliating manner
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to emerge unexpectedly well from a difficult situation
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Also, fall upon.
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Attack suddenly and viciously, as in They fell on the guards and overpowered them . [c. 1400]
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Meet with, encounter, as in They fell on hard times . [Late 1500s]
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Find by chance, discover, as in We fell upon the idea last Saturday night . [Mid-1600s]
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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.
Do you think they are going to fall on their swords?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Flood peaks reaching India are often generated not in the high Himalayas but lower down, in the Siwaliks, Chure and Terai, where intense monsoon rain can fall on steep, small catchments.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
One had a festering cut on his shin that he said he got from a fall on the rocks near the beach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Altman takes a real-world approach to balance training: When you fall, you don’t typically fall on one leg, she reasons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
She let the pink dress fall on top of the black and, stepping contemptuously through the pile, reached for the gown, her green backless post-finals gown.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
