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Synonyms

fall on

British  

verb

  1. Also: fall upon.  to attack or snatch (an army, booty, etc)

  2. to fail, esp in a ridiculous or humiliating manner

  3. to emerge unexpectedly well from a difficult situation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
fall on Idioms  

  1. Also, fall upon.

  2. Attack suddenly and viciously, as in They fell on the guards and overpowered them . [c. 1400]

  3. Meet with, encounter, as in They fell on hard times . [Late 1500s]

  4. Find by chance, discover, as in We fell upon the idea last Saturday night . [Mid-1600s]

  5. 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.

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said discussions with Washington would be “meaningless” if bombs continued to fall on Lebanon.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

Rather than picking a fight with the White House, Blanco said, the judges are letting the top prosecutor fall on his face.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026

The six-week mark of the war will fall on 11 April.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

Micron and Sandisk shares fall on fears that Google’s TurboQuant algorithm will reduce memory chip demand.

From Barron's • Apr. 2, 2026

I’m amazed that I don’t fall on my face since the grass and the fallen leaves are so slippery.

From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass

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.