fall away
Britishverb
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(of friendship) to be withdrawn
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to slope down
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Also, fall off . Withdraw one's friendship, support, or allegiance. For example, After the divorce, her friends slowly fell away . [Early 1500s]
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Also, fall off . Gradually decline in size or strength, as in The breeze slowly fell away , or, as Shakespeare put it ( King Lear , 1:2): “Love cools, friendship falls off, Brothers divide.” [Early 1500s]
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Drift from an established faith, cause, or principles. For example, I fell away from the Catholic Church when I was a teenager . [Early 1500]
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.
Water levels in the River Deben in Suffolk dropped by more than a metre after heavy rain caused a weir structure at Ufford, near Woodbridge, to fall away and a bridge to partially collapse.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
A few minutes after liftoff, its two halves will separate and fall away, allowing Roman to continue its journey into space.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Read together, these novels circle the questions posed by “Lord of the Flies”: What are we human beings once the familiar social structures that sustain us fall away?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
She’s the real, rare example of someone who both talks the talk and walks the walk; someone whose warm smile and message of community don’t fall away the second the cameras stop rolling.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
All I can do is return his look, feel another wall around him fall away, see the glint in his eyes change.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
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.
