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.
He said that a talent drain in 2019 caused Samsung to fall behind in developing certain high-bandwidth memory products and miss out on strong demand in 2024 and 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 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
It also has the power to recover arrears if parents fall behind with payments.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
The worry is that the company will fall behind on AI innovation, and some think funding a business transformation would be a better use of cash than buying back stock and paying dividends.
From MarketWatch • May 1, 2026
At first he could hear no sound but the unceasing rush of the fall behind him.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
