fall away

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word fall away. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word fall away, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say fall away in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word fall away you have here. The definition of the word fall away will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offall away, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: fallaway

English

Verb

fall away (third-person singular simple present falls away, present participle falling away, simple past fell away, past participle fallen away)

  1. (intransitive) To cease to support a person or cause.
    After the divorce, all his friends fell away one by one.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Luke 8:13:
      These [] for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
    • 1987 April 11, John Birmingham, “If Only Cardinals Law and O'Connor Were Gay!”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
      My "ex"es include both practicing and fallen-away Catholics and Jews.
  2. (intransitive) To diminish in size, weight, or intensity.
    Coordinate terms: fade away, fall off, slip away, tail off, taper off, trail off
    • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics:
      One colour falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly.
    • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wreccker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:
      While long-distance and commuter rail travel still fared well, train travel to seaside resorts was perhaps inevitably falling away.
  3. (intransitive) To perish; to vanish; to be lost.
  4. (intransitive, of terrain) To slope downward.

Derived terms

Related terms