fall upon

• fall on

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

1. To experience; to suffer.

   With the rise of the Internet, some media fell upon hard times.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, , and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

2. To occur at some particular point in time.
   • 1925, Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor, chapter 1, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms:

     It fell upon the day of full moon of the fourth month, the second year, in the era of Established Calm (AD 168), that Emperor Ling went in state to the Hall of Virtue.

3. To set upon; to attack suddenly; to invade.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , lines 1-3:

     If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.

4. To happen upon, find.
   • 1985 February 2, Malkah Barrsey Feldman, “Blacks & Jews: Vulnerability & Values”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 14:

     If we dig deeply into why it was so important for mainstream USA (and the rest that followed) to smear Jackson, we may fall upon the same reasons why more attention has been paid to Black women making anti-Semitic remarks than white women.