fall behind
Britishverb
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to drop back; fail to keep up
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to be in arrears, as with a payment
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Also, get behind.
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Lag, fail to keep up, as in You really must keep up with the others; if you fall behind you could get lost . [First half of 1500s]
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Be financially in arrears, as in He fell behind in his payments . [Mid-1800s]
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.
For Rees, this is the heart of the UK's problem, and helps explain why countries can offer universal, free health services and still fall behind.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
The personnel changes signal to Wall Street that Alphabet may be losing out on AI talent to competing companies, which may mean it could fall behind in technological advances.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
All of those changes have consumer advocates concerned that more borrowers could fall behind on their payments, amid confusion over which plans they’re eligible for and which ones make the most sense for them financially.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
For instance, a clock traveling at 10 m/s for 57 million years would fall behind a stationary clock by about one second.
From Science Daily ● May 18, 2026
Everyone else—Columbia, Rutgers, Pennsylvania, and Cornell—began to fall behind almost immediately.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
