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.
And if revenue must rise, favor consumption taxes, which fall on spending rather than on the capital and income on which a shrinking workforce depends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The practical issue siblings face is that caregiving duties invariably fall on them unevenly.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
"It was so strong that I thought the building was going to fall on top of me."
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
SpaceX shares closed at $156.11 with a nearly 1% gain on Tuesday, a slight recovery from a 16% fall on Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
If it was lightning, I was either to stand under a tree or in an open field so the tree wouldn't fall on me.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
