fall back on

Idioms  

1. Also, fall back upon. Rely on, have recourse to, as in I fall back on old friends in time of need, or When he lost his job he had to fall back upon his savings. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fall back on

Unlike Google or Meta, it has no advertising empire to fall back on if business takes a hit, and no cloud business like Microsoft's or SpaceX's.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

What Baldwin is lamenting is our tendency to fall back on binaries — right and wrong, good and evil — rather than to struggle with complexity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

"When panicked, people fall back on their instinctive responses, and don't read small print in a dark and possibly smoke-filled cabin."

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

That leaves you with enough money, roughly, to 90, and then you’d have only your guaranteed income to fall back on.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

What she would fall back on was Grandpa, of course.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

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