What does fall mean

Crossword clues for fall

fall

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

fall

I.verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a bomb falls on sth

▪ A bomb fell on the cathedral during the war.

a burden falls on sb

▪ The tax burden falls most heavily upon the poorest people.

a currency rises/falls (=it goes up or down in relation to other currencies)

▪ The currency fell from 144 to the dollar twelve months ago to 812.

a deal falls through (=does not happen as arranged)

▪ The cost was simply too high, so the deal fell through.

a dramatic fall/drop/decline

▪ Between these years there was a dramatic fall in youth employment.

a drop/fall in temperature

▪ At night there is a dramatic drop in temperature.

a fall of snow (=an occasion when it snows)

▪ We had our first fall of snow in mid-November.

a fall/decline/drop in exports

▪ There has been a decline in exports and an increase in oil prices.

a fall/drop in prices

▪ Poor demand led to a sharp drop in prices.

a fall/drop in sales

▪ Some jobs may be cut following a big drop in sales.

a fall/drop in value

▪ There was a sudden drop in the value of oil.

a fall/reduction in unemployment

▪ We are hoping to see a fall in unemployment.

a joke falls flat (=people don’t find a joke funny)

▪ His practical jokes usually fell flat.

a level falls/goes down/decreases

▪ Pollution levels have fallen slightly.

a number falls/drops/goes down/decreases/declines

▪ The number of new houses being built is falling steadily.

a population falls/declines/decreases

▪ The population in many rural areas has continued to fall.

a price goes down/falls/decreases

▪ In real terms, the price of clothes has fallen over the last ten years.

a rating falls

▪ His rating fell to only 28%.

a record falls (=is beaten)

▪ Another record will fall on the last day of the season, if Arsenal win their final game.

a regime collapses/falls (=loses power)

▪ Authoritarian regimes tend to collapse in times of economic hardship.

a rising/falling rate

▪ A falling mortality rate led to a gradual increase in the proportion of the aged in the population.

a shadow falls somewhere (=appears on something)

▪ The footsteps came closer, and a shadow fell across the table.

A...hush fell over

▪ A sudden hush fell over the crowd.

an empire falls/collapses (=loses power suddenly)

▪ In A.D.476, the western part of the Empire collapsed.

as easy as pie/ABC/falling off a log (=very easy)

come/fall under the influence of sb/sth (=be influenced by someone or something)

▪ They had come under the influence of a religious sect.

come/fall within the scope of sth (=be included in it)

▪ Banks and building societies fall within the scope of the new legislation.

consumption falls/decreases/goes down

▪ Coal consumption has fallen dramatically.

curls fall/tumble (=hang down)

▪ The child's golden curls fell around her shoulders.

darkness falls/comes (also darkness descendsliterary)

▪ As darkness fell, rescue workers had to give up the search.

decrease/fall by half (=become 50% less)

▪ Share prices fell by half.

demand falls (=becomes lower)

▪ Demand for the products has fallen in the last six months.

dive/fall/jump/plunge head-first

▪ I fell head-first down the stairs.

earnings fall (=become lower)

▪ The company’s earnings fell by 21% in the fourth quarter.

expenditure falls

▪ Government expenditure on scientific research has fallen in the last few years.

exports fall/decline/drop

▪ Exports of gas and oil continued to fall while imports of raw materials have risen.

fall about laughingBritish English (= laugh a lot)

▪ He saw the look on my face and he just fell about laughing.

fall behind on the payments (also fall behind with the payments British English) (= not make payments when you should)

▪ I’d run up nearly £4,000 in debt, and was beginning to fall behind with the payments.

fall behind with the rent/get behind on the rent (=fail to pay your rent on time)

▪ You could be evicted if you fall behind with the rent.

fall below/fall short of sb's expectations (=be worse that someone hoped or expected)

▪ Our profits last year fell below expectations.

fall below/fall short of sb's expectations (=be worse that someone hoped or expected)

▪ Our profits last year fell below expectations.

fall far/a long way/well short of sth

▪ Facilities in these schools fall far short of the standards required.

fall from a peak

▪ Visitor numbers have fallen from a peak of 1.8 million per year to under 1 million.

fall guy

▪ Browne claims that the company was simply looking for a fall guy.

fall illformal (= become ill)

▪ Louise fell ill while she was on holiday.

fall in love (=start being in love)

▪ I fell in love with her the minute I saw her.

fall into a deep/long etc sleep (=start sleeping deeply, for a long time etc)

▪ He lay down on his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

fall into abeyance (=no longer be used)

fall into disrepair

▪ buildings allowed to fall into disrepair

fall into...snare

▪ I didn’t want to fall into the same snare again.

fall off a ladder

▪ One of the builders fell off a ladder and broke his leg.

fall outside the scope of sth (=not be included in it)

▪ His later exploits in Persia fall outside the scope of this book.

fall short of a goal/target/ideal

▪ The economy fell short of the Treasury’s target of 2% growth.

fall short of a target (=achieve less than you wanted to)

▪ Car production at the plant has fallen short of its target by 5%.

fall short of the mark (=are not good enough)

▪ One or two songs on the album are interesting, but most fall short of the mark.

fall short of your ideals (=not be as good as you think something should be)

▪ In appearance, she fell somewhat short of his ideals.

fall to/hit/reach etc a new low (=be worth less than ever before)

▪ The euro has fallen to a new low against the dollar.

fall vacantBritish English (= become vacant)

▪ He was offered the position of headmaster when it fell vacant.

fall within the ambit of sth

▪ areas falling within the ambit of our research

fall/come into a category

▪ The data we collected fell into two categories.

fall/come to bits (=separate into many different parts because of being old or damaged)

▪ The book was so old that I was afraid it would fall to bits.

fall/drop sharply

▪ Oil prices fell sharply.

fall/drop/sink to the floor

▪ He let his cigarette fall to the floor.

fallen leaves (=that have fallen off the trees)

▪ The children were jumping in piles of fallen leaves.

fallen on hard times (=did not have much money)

▪ He had clearly fallen on hard times.

fall/get behind with the mortgage (=be unable to pay enough money each month)

▪ He fell behind with the mortgage when he lost his job.

fall/get into arrears (=become late with payments)

fall/go down in value

▪ There is a risk that the shares may fall in value.

falling asleep at the wheel (=falling asleep while driving)

▪ One in seven road accidents is caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

falling demand (=decreasing)

▪ the falling demand for coal

falling star

fall/sit down etc with a bump

▪ Rose fell, landing with a bump.

fall/take sickformal (= become ill, especially with something serious or that will last a long time)

▪ He fell sick and died within a matter of weeks.

fall/walk into a trap

▪ Police had set a trap for hooligans at the match.

fell headlong into

▪ I fell headlong into a pool of icy water.

fell into disfavour

▪ Coal fell into disfavour because burning it caused pollution.

fell into disrepute

▪ This theory fell into disrepute in the fifties.

fell into disuse

▪ The building eventually fell into disuse.

fell into...deep sleep

▪ He lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

fell on unresponsive ears (=was not listened to)

▪ His warning fell on unresponsive ears.

fell overboard

▪ One of the crew fell overboard and drowned.

fell short of...expectations

▪ Shares in the company dropped 26p yesterday, as profits fell short of City expectations.

fell silent (=became silent)

▪ The crowd fell silent when the President appeared.

fell silent

▪ At last the guns fell silent.

fell...against the yen (=decreased in value in relation to the yen)

▪ The dollar fell by 24 percent against the yen between 1970 and 1973.

finger of suspicion...fell on

▪ The finger of suspicion immediately fell on Broderick.

free fall

▪ The spacecraft is now in free fall towards the Earth.

go/fall into a trance

▪ She went into a deep hypnotic trance.

go/fall into decline (=become less important, successful etc)

▪ At the beginning of the century the cloth trade was going into decline.

imports fall/drop

▪ Imports of consumer goods fell sharply in December.

increase/rise/fall etc in production

▪ a drop in oil and gas production

inflation falls

▪ Inflation fell by 0.5% last month.

light falls on/across etc sth

▪ The light fell on her book.

night fallswritten (= it starts to become dark)

▪ It grew colder as night fell.

profits fall

▪ The group saw profits fall from £24m to £17.8m.

rising/falling unemployment

▪ Rising unemployment led to more crime.

sales fall/drop/go down (=become lower)

▪ European sales have fallen by 12%.

sb’s face falls (=they look sad or disappointed)

▪ Her face fell when she saw who it was.

sb’s gaze falls on sb/sth (=someone looks at someone or something)

▪ Fisher’s gaze fell on Mr. Grant.

sb’s glance falls on sth (=someone looks at something)

▪ Geoff’s glance fell on the broken vase.

sb’s income falls/goes down

▪ Average income fell by one third during this period.

sb’s mouth falls/drops open (=in surprise)

▪ ‘Me?’ she said, her mouth dropping open.

shares fall/go down (=their value decreases)

▪ Shares fell sharply on the London Stock Market yesterday.

silence falls/descends (=a silence begins)

▪ A sudden silence fell over the room.

sink/fall/drop to your knees (=move so that you are kneeling)

▪ Tim fell to his knees and started to pray.

slide/fall/descend into anarchy

▪ The nation is in danger of falling into anarchy.

slip/fall/settle into a routine (=get into a routine without making any difficulty)

▪ The team slipped quickly into a routine.

slip/lapse/fall/sink into a coma (=go into one)

▪ Brett slipped into a coma from which he never awakened.

snow falls

▪ Outside in the dark, snow was falling silently.

standards fall/slip/decline

▪ School inspectors say that educational standards have fallen.

suspicion falls on sb

▪ Suspicion fell on Jenkins who had been seen near the scene of the crime.

the cost falls/goes down

▪ Airline costs have fallen considerably.

the fall/collapse of an empire (=the sudden end of an empire)

▪ After the battle of Waterloo, the collapse of Napoleon's empire was inevitable.

the leaves fall

▪ All the leaves had fallen off the tree.

the rain falls

▪ The rain was still falling steadily.

the rise and fall of sb/sth

▪ The exhibition tells the story of the rise and fall of the Etruscan civilisation.

the temperature falls/drops

▪ Last winter, the temperature fell below freezing on only five days.

the value of sth falls

▪ The value of your investment may fall.

throw sth into disarray/fall into disarray

▪ The delay threw the entire timetable into disarray.

tripped and fell

▪ He tripped and fell.

turnover rose/fell

▪ Turnover rose 9%.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

sharply

▪ Yet the jobless rate is falling sharply.

▪ After that, volumes were expected to fall sharply.

▪ Sickness absence overall fell sharply last year by almost 0.5 percent of working time from the 1991 figure of 4.0 percent.

▪ The Potomac was clean again, a haven for windsurfers, and certain airborne pollutants had fallen sharply.

▪ Sales of units fell sharply after the crash of October 1987.

▪ Many technology stocks have fallen sharply in recent weeks because of concerns over the future of Internet advertising.

▪ Enrolments at both primary and secondary levels fell sharply in the early 1980s before beginning to rise steadily from 1984 onwards.

▪ Bombay: Prices fell sharply for the second day running.

■ NOUN

category

▪ Five patients and one control fell into the borderline category.

▪ Those management approaches which are presented in in-service education occasionally fall into the category of those which describe organized anarchy.

▪ Less than one percent of homicides recorded nationwide last year fell into this category, McCrary said.

▪ It can be argued that many projects fall into this category, perhaps usefully called development engineering.

▪ As far as his or her departmental duties are concerned a minister's work will fall into roughly four categories.

▪ Tien said members of those races in great numbers fall into the disadvantaged category.

darkness

▪ He read it carefully, the lucid language and poetry of argument clearing and settling his mind. Darkness fell.

▪ Finally darkness fell, and no new soldiers appeared.

▪ Yet there was a sealed-in-cosiness when darkness fell early and the lights came on.

▪ It looked like darkness would fall long before evening.

▪ Just as darkness fell a man and a woman came and announced that I was sitting in their seats.

▪ As darkness fell in late afternoon, rescue workers began recovering and identifying bodies with flashlights.

disuse

▪ Many of these local mills remain in name alone, having fallen into disuse and demolition.

▪ Because of the problems with false prophecy, the gift of prophecy itself eventually fell into disuse and sometimes disrepute.

▪ The National Association of Gay Switchboards has fallen into disuse.

▪ As a result there was water, water everywhere except in the Bath House, which fell into disuse and subsequently burned.

▪ The railway tracks were lifted in the 1960s, and the bridge fell into disuse.

▪ It was a commentary on heroism and how it has fallen into disuse.

▪ It seems that the procedure, just outlined, for the creation of new criminal offences has fallen into disuse.

▪ Many large-scale competitor data bases, especially those on mainframes, have fallen into disuse.

ear

▪ This wide disposition yielded felicitous effects of colour and tone which always fell pleasingly on the ear.

▪ The modulated, rhythmic braying of that mule fell upon his ears.

▪ But his words fell on unresponsive ears.

▪ Invitations by Paredes to the various governors to second his plan fell on deaf ears.

▪ The house is falling down around our ears.

▪ But my suggestions fell on deaf ears.

▪ As he did so, a fine trickle of sawdust appeared to fall from his ear to the floor.

expectations

▪ The operating performance of these reactors has also consistently fallen below expectations.

▪ Digital Equipment Corp. this week warned Wall Street its third-quarter earnings will fall below analysts' expectations.

▪ If this and other resolutions fell well below popular expectations, their implementation since then has invited even greater derision.

▪ The company said its earnings would fall short of previous expectations mainly because of lower earnings from its Gulf Printing unit.

▪ The trainers suggest that, as guards, they fell short of expectations.

▪ Silicon Graphics said its earnings for the fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31 would fall short of expectations.

▪ Since Christmas, however, demand has fallen below expectations.

▪ Yields on government treasury bills are falling amid expectations of a second rate cut within three months, he said.

face

▪ As the youth smoked a cigarette, shadows fell across his face.

▪ How stupid to fall on your face.

▪ Golden flowers danced before his eyes as he fell forward, his face banging the brick floor.

▪ The tramp had fallen forward on to his face, his body twitching madly, blood spreading out around his head.

▪ But once the ball tips, the game falls flat on its face faster than a top-ranked team after a first-round upset.

▪ Because if you don't a fresh ambition or optimistic plan will fall flat on its face.

▪ Her thick hair fell forward over her face.

floor

▪ Her nightdress fell to the floor as she reached the door.

▪ The umbrella fell to the floor with a sharp crack of the ferrule on the tile.

▪ He says that he felt strange and fell on to the floor.

▪ One by one, Hinn touched them and they fell to the floor.

▪ Now the challenge is to mould a new identity for international car racing by Timothy Collings Cigarette ash fell to the floor.

▪ When he ran his hand over it, a sprinkle of grit fell to the floor.

▪ It blew her hair across her face, and some books fell on the floor.

ground

▪ Swarf smiled in triumph, letting the body fall on to the ground.

▪ Not finished, he slammed into reverse so quickly that she fell to the ground.

▪ Joseph's words fell on stony ground.

▪ He just let the pits fall on the ground below.

▪ Failing payment of the £30 the Company's promise would fall to the ground.

▪ A long shadow fell across the ground in front of me.

▪ Whatever it was precipitated an avalanche of other objects which thundered down around him as Charles fell sprawling to the ground.

▪ As he attempted to dismount, he seemed to lose strength, and half fell to the ground.

hair

▪ When she tossed her head her hair fell around her shoulders and upper arms in a lovely auburn cascade.

▪ The hair and skin had fallen from the head, and the flesh from the bones-all alive with disgusting maggots.

▪ He developed cancer, and despite radium treatment - after which all his hair fell out - he was declared terminally ill.

▪ Her black hair fell to her shoulders.

▪ Her hair fell forward into the frying steak and potatoes; she brushed her hair back with a fat-coated hand.

▪ Back at home again I came down to breakfast one morning scratching my head and my hair started to fall out.

▪ His Straight brown hair fell half-combed across his forehead, and his clothes were clean but rumpled.

hand

▪ In those days, the sweat would fall off my hands and I'd hear it hitting the floor.

▪ He lurched sideways and fell to his hands and knees on the stone steps.

▪ In these circumstances, the Anti-Corn law movement fell into the able hands of Richard Cobden.

▪ Finally, this charming corner has fallen into the right hands.

▪ The revolver nearly fell from my hands, and my whole body froze with fear.

▪ The power to play or not fell into the hands of program director Crocker and his peers around the country.

▪ Not unless they fell into Morton's hands.

▪ I was endlessly letting things fall out of my hands.

index

▪ The Nikkei index has fallen by 60 percent from its peak, and is now testing the 17,000 level.

▪ The Nasdaq Composite Index fell for a third day, dropping as much as 10. 53 to 988. 29.

▪ The FTSE100 index fell to its lowest level of the year.

▪ The Nikkei 300 index fell 0. 45, or 0. 15 percent, to 297. 38.

▪ The stock market, whose index had fallen throughout 1990, lost a further 7.5 points in response to the package.

▪ The Bloomberg New York Metro index fell 2. 04, or 1. 57 percent, to 127. 43.

▪ The Nasdaq Composite Index fell for a third day, dropping 8. 60 to 990. 22.

knee

▪ She fell on her knees before them and begged them to take her with them.

▪ She stumbled and fell to her knees.

▪ When Blue Beard returns, he falls to his knees and hugs his wife.

▪ Francis Lee received a little kick and fell on his knees.

▪ He fell to his knees and greedily sucked up the water like a thirsty horse.

▪ Too fast for his shorter legs and he fell on his knees.

▪ The woman in the blue raincoat fell to her knees, still clinging with one hand to the push-chair.

love

▪ Now, she had fallen in love.

▪ It was just like falling in love.

▪ The couple fell in love before they had even set eyes on each other during a six-month long distance courtship.

▪ Eventually, with the help of magic and fate, Ashputtel and the prince fell in love and married.

▪ Having fallen in love with each other, the couple are now setting up home together at lightning speed.

▪ Kathy had fallen in love with an old blue Victorian across from Edgewood Park.

▪ I am the same woman you fell in love with then, the very same.

▪ In the one year, 1920-the year Amelia fell in love with flying-fifteen aerial mail pilots died.

market

▪ The Hong Kong stock market fell by 5 percent after Mr Li's attack.

▪ How could Vinik unwind such large positions without the markets for those stocks falling in on themselves and on Magellan?

▪ So if the market falls, he is protected by the option.

▪ Gas utility companies fell after the government said it was considering allowing non-gas companies to enter the retail gas market.

▪ One of those things was that the stock market might fall, oh, say, 20 percent this year.

▪ Keynes's theory of labour market adjustment has fallen victim to widespread ignorance and neglect.

▪ That makes a difference when it comes to refinancing the bonds, or locking in lower payments when bond market rates fall.

piece

▪ It should fall out in one piece.

▪ And then he fell into two pieces.

▪ The metal bubbled for an eye-aching moment, and then the door fell in two pieces in the passage beyond.

▪ After he left, I fell to pieces.

▪ He hated playing agony aunt but he couldn't afford to have Hirschfeldt falling to pieces.

▪ Supposing the union fell to pieces, these were the fracture lines along which it would naturally break.

▪ The Soviet Union is falling to pieces; a bloody struggle for those pieces can not be ruled out.

▪ The media seemed to be willing the marriage to fall to pieces.

points

▪ In October the index fell below 20,000 points, leading to government intervention to support the market.

▪ The Nasdaq fell 32. 78 points, or 1. 9 percent, at 1, 666. 88.

▪ It fell 7. 77 points, or 0. 49 percent, to 1, 592. 21.

▪ In relation to the rest of the country, however, the share of the top six cities fell by 2.5 percentage points.

▪ She was proved wrong, but when her prediction first became known, the Dow fell 44 points.

▪ What do you call it when the Dow Jones falls 554 points in less than a day?

▪ Its yield, a sensitive gauge of forecasts for growth and inflation, fell 4 basis points to 5. 97 percent.

price

▪ If Hydro trials prove successful and it is included on more Chafer sprayers, the price is likely to fall considerably.

▪ If share prices fall over that time, a safety net guarantees you will get your money back.

▪ Wireless's share price fell as much as 5 pence to 453.

▪ Now the price has fallen and future purchases by discount houses will be at the new, lower rate.

▪ Demand is so slow that the price index fell to 40. 8 % in December from 44. 5 %.

▪ Their prices might fall, hurting commodity producers.

▪ Worldwide, stock prices fell in dollar terms.

production

▪ Officials blamed the fall on a collapse in the stock market, lower industrial production and falling domestic investment.

▪ Sugar production fell to a record low of 129,920 tonnes in 1990 and bauxite production was 15 percent below target.

▪ With production falling, factories stop ordering new equipment.

▪ Agricultural production fell by 10.8 percent, largely due to the effects of the country's worst drought in 50 years.

▪ Summer grain production this year has fallen by nearly 10 %, according to the ministry of agriculture.

▪ Many analysts expect production to fall again in 1996.

profit

▪ Special engineering activities suffered with the depressed aerospace and defence markets, profits falling from £14 million to £12 million.

▪ Each warned after the stock market closed on Friday that profits will fall below analysts' forecasts.

▪ Operating profit fell to £10.5m from £11.1m in 1991.

▪ Operating profit fell an undisclosed amount.

▪ First half profit before tax fell by 12% to £44.5m at Laporte; eps fell by 6% to 18.8p.

▪ In 1995 pretax profit fell 6. 51 percent to 21. 97 billion pesetas.

▪ Taxable profits fell from £7.81m to £1.17m in the year to 30 June on group sales down about £20m to £91m.

rain

▪ The camera watches, looking in and looking out. Rain falls through the shell of the echoing house.

▪ A deluge of tropical rain fell on us an hour later.

▪ The rain had started to fall and the mechanics were busy preparing the machine for what would be a wet race.

▪ The 0. 01 inch of rain that fell in the Valley in December was the least for that month since 1981.

▪ The sky was low and pregnant with rain which would fall as soon as the wind dropped.

▪ The rain fell on empty streets.

▪ A steady gray rain was falling.

rate

▪ First the rate fell from 6.2 rubles to the dollar to 6.5.

▪ Indeed, many investors believe that long-term interest rates could fall to 5. 5 % in the coming months.

▪ Yet the jobless rate is falling sharply.

▪ The unemployment rate fell to 4. 9 percent, a 23-year low, in April.

▪ The rate may fall below that, depending on the general trend of interest rates.

▪ Short-term rates fell to below 2 % from 4 %.

▪ If the inflation rate subsequently falls below the level allowed for a surplus of funds may result.

▪ New bond issues rose as interest rates fell during the last three months of 1995.

sale

▪ It widened still further in the 1980s as sales of the Mirror fell.

▪ Even Talbots same-store sales fell an unexpected 4. 7 percent.

▪ By the mid-Seventies sales had fallen dramatically.

▪ The company blamed weak sales and falling chip prices for its microprocessors.

▪ Estimates suggest that since then, the number of house sales has fallen by about 40 percent.

▪ Comparable-store sales fell 0. 9 % for this period, Roberds said.

▪ Thanks to recession, total domestic sales of personal computers fell by 8% in the year to March.

▪ Orders slowed, causing sales to fall off dramatically.

share

▪ Bank shares fell 0. 87 percent as a group.

▪ Earnings per share fell to 15.6p from 24.1p but the 1991 dividend total of 14.85p per share is to be maintained.

▪ Motorola shares fell 3 1 / 4 to 53.

▪ Goldman Sachs's shares fell 5 % after it announced the sale of 40m shares held by former partners.

▪ The shares have been falling since September, when they traded at nearly 60.

▪ Earnings per share fell by 99.7% to 0.3 pence.

▪ Inverness shares fell 1 / 8 to 8 1 / 8.

snow

▪ Outside snow began to fall in large fat flakes.

▪ Outside, a light snow had begun to fall, whitening the streets with downy flakes.

▪ Heavy snow had fallen in Frome the day before that, the deepest since 1767, and conditions were dismal.

▪ And for a very few minutes I listen to the whisper of tiny tinkling snow crystals falling now in ever denser sheets.

▪ No more snow had fallen, the sky was still overcast but the air was crisp and a little warmer.

▪ Around noon, the snow started falling again.

▪ Snow to go: Weathermen predict no more snow will fall in the region over the coming days.

▪ Some 65 inches of snow have fallen on the city so far this winter, he said.

temperature

▪ As the temperature falls the process slows, and below 10oC the development from egg to L3 usually can not take place.

▪ In response, body temperature falls, metabolism slows, and we prepare to drop off.

▪ When temperatures fall to freezing, they're ready to go.

▪ In fact, areas where the outdoor temperature routinely falls to about 15 degrees are not good candidates for heat pumps.

▪ As core temperature starts to fall, self-regulating mechanisms start to restore equilibrium.

▪ The temperature had fallen below zero.

▪ The moors got higher, the weather worsened, and temperatures fell.

▪ Hypothermia weakens muscles and slows heart rate, which may stop if body temperature falls below 90 degrees.

trap

▪ At least Morton would never fall into that trap ... But it was all moonshine.

▪ I tried to empathize with their own differing emotional reactions and the fact that they were falling into their own traps again.

▪ They shouldn't fall into the Spurs trap of mounting debts and asset-stripping sales of star players.

▪ They are waiting to see if you fall into the trap.

▪ During the 90s Washington fell into the trap of allowing events to dictate the relationship, with increasingly destabilising results.

▪ Duffy refuses to fall into the trap of spoon-feeding the material to passive students, which only increases their passivity.

▪ The tendency to keep falling into the subjectivity trap usually brings with it a tendency to confuse goals with methods.

▪ One who thinks she fell into that trap is 76-year-old Josephine Woods.

unemployment

▪ The unemployment rate fell to 4. 9 percent, a 23-year low, in April.

▪ There has been a return to growth, and unemployment is falling.

▪ In 1996, unemployment in the region fell below 4 percent for the first time in years.

▪ Mr. Corbyn Unemployment may well have fallen since 1987, but it has increased a great deal in the past year.

▪ The Minister will be pleased to know that unemployment in my constituency fell by 41 last month.

▪ For example, it forecast an increase in unemployment of 3,000 for 1986-87; in fact unemployment fell by 6,800.

▪ Hitting the Poor the Hardest Unemployment does not fall gently and evenly across the whole population.

■ VERB

begin

▪ A light rain began to fall.

▪ In poor countries, however, incomes did not rise as death rates began to fall.

▪ Then, suddenly, I step off a ledge and begin to fall.

▪ Even as he looked the first drops of rain began to fall, whipped into a flurry by a chill little wind.

▪ Attendance at the mission began to fall off.

▪ As he walked along, light rain began to fall.

▪ Outside, the first snow had begun falling.

let

▪ Swarf smiled in triumph, letting the body fall on to the ground.

▪ Those on a losing streak will jump from casino to casino, letting the chips fall where they may.

▪ Twist some lengths of red ribbon and let them fall down the sides of the cake.

▪ The rector noticed that Cynthia Coppersmith was letting her tears fall without shame.

▪ Maureen hefted a bright chain and let it fall to the counter.

▪ Roy shrugged off his own coat while still sitting, letting it fall over the back of his chair.

▪ Would they let him fall into our arms if they thought he knew important things?

rise

▪ It was as if the sounds were rising and falling with a supernatural air current.

▪ A total of 312 shares rose, 494 fell, and 337 were unchanged.

▪ It would not be expected to depend particularly on the frequency, the rate at which the waves rose and fell.

▪ Across the table, Pearl rose and fell in her chair like she kept seeing something out on the water.

▪ In deep antiquity, vast, sprawling empires rose and fell, usually the result of happenstance rather than deliberation.

▪ Hsu Fu rose and fell on big, though not yet dangerous, seas.

▪ He had grey hair and a black moustache which rose and fell as he breathed.

▪ Strange and beautiful and terrible empires rose and fell, and passed on their knowledge to their successors.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a fallen woman

▪ She was a fallen woman, and her hair knew it.

▪ Whatever she can urge in mitigation, she is a fallen woman for the rest of her life.

be coming/falling apart at the seams

▪ The country's whole economy is coming apart at the seams.

be/fall head over heels in love

▪ It wasn't just the usual liaison: the two of them fell head over heels in love.

be/fall hopelessly in love (with sb)

▪ And, unknown to her father, I fell hopelessly in love with her.

▪ I was too afraid of falling hopelessly in love with this protégé of Yukio Mishima, whose marvellous homoerotic poems I translated.

▪ James Pawsey, the Tory member for Rugby, also appeared to be hopelessly in love.

▪ She was falling hopelessly in love with the man.

be/fall prey to sb/sth

▪ After a convincing win in game 1 Kasparov fell prey to overconfidence, losing games 4 and 5.

▪ All these animals, and others, had fallen prey to the apprentice hunters.

▪ It really seems as if some drivers fall prey to a death wish when freezing fog descends.

▪ Now, once again, the thin reed of refugee protection has fallen prey to the winds of political expediency.

▪ The magnificent castle was doomed to fall prey to the hand of desolation.

▪ The older trees grow spindly and, their immune systems weakened, fall prey to infestation of beetles and disease.

▪ These refugees fell prey to marauding gangs, even to troopers, or to one another.

▪ With aid supplies almost always out of reach, the boys became weak, and stragglers fell prey to wild animals.

fall apart

fall asleep

▪ Dad always falls asleep in front of the TV after Sunday lunch.

▪ Has Monica fallen asleep yet?

▪ Her three-year-old daughter fell asleep while we talked.

▪ I must have fallen asleep with the light on last night.

▪ One in seven road accidents is caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

▪ Al Gore falls asleep as he makes maiden speech as Vice-President; no-one notices - they're all asleep too.

▪ Had they fallen asleep, the firemen say, not one of them would have survived.

▪ He falls asleep in the chair, wakes up startled, afraid for a moment to move.

▪ He fell asleep dreaming though that Rupert Quashie went to the beach and pushed Collymore down with his gun.

▪ He seemed to fall asleep, leaning heavily on to Cameron.

▪ I'd fallen asleep, and now I was awake.

▪ I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew, some one was waking me.

▪ Suddenly he gave a frightened start, for he had nearly fallen asleep and the ground below seemed a long distance away.

fall flat

▪ But the hopes fell flat, and private funding for vaccine work is drying up.

▪ He has been Navajo president for one year, and his efforts to decentralize tribal government so far have fallen flat.

▪ However, if your suggestion falls flat, he may not be ready to try another until the 21st century.

▪ Yet there are certain composers who fall flat on their face unless the adrenalin really start to flow.

fall flat on your/sth's face

▪ She fell flat on her face getting out of the car.

▪ The last time I wore high-heeled shoes I fell flat on my face outside a restaurant.

▪ As we were going out to the car Babe slipped and fell flat on her face.

▪ At last, after several near misses, I fall flat on my face.

▪ Because if you don't a fresh ambition or optimistic plan will fall flat on its face.

▪ But once the ball tips, the game falls flat on its face faster than a top-ranked team after a first-round upset.

▪ It is also a nation waiting for her to fall flat on her face.

▪ Writers strive for a universal experience distilled from personal memories and tend to fall flat on their faces.

▪ Yet there are certain composers who fall flat on their face unless the adrenalin really start to flow.

fall into line/bring sb into line

fall into place

▪ Another piece of the jigsaw had just fallen into place.

▪ But just in time, it fell into place.

▪ I am like the painter of that mosaic, the small pieces are falling into place and I need your help.

▪ Mechanisms to ensure gender balance in appointed government bodies were also falling into place.

▪ That was our greatest moment together, I think, the moment when our whole future fell into place at last.

▪ The route had by now fallen into place.

▪ Yet it was not until researchers extended the same effort to the oceans that the bigger tectonic picture fell into place.

fall into ruin

▪ The 18th century mansion has fallen into ruin.

▪ In 1685 the castle was burnt by the Duke of Argyll and fell into ruin.

▪ Miles of poverty with modern adobe dwellings either being built or falling into ruin.

▪ Unemployment runs at more than 50 %, and most factories have fallen into ruin.

fall into step (with sb)

▪ Instead he fell into step, and they went on from there.

▪ Once again, Blue falls into step with Black, perhaps even more harmoniously than before.

▪ She walked to the door, trying her hardest to ignore the man who fell into step beside her.

▪ The Clinton administration, after some hesitation, fell into step behind Paris.

▪ The great horse Koulash galloped forward to join the Tsar's horses, and fell into step with them.

▪ The senator fell into step beside me while some of Bonefish's smaller children followed at a safe distance.

▪ They fell into step on the slush-covered path.

fall into/avoid the trap of doing sth

▪ But do not fall into the trap of doing something I saw recently.

▪ Don't fall into the trap of comparing your wages and conditions with other volunteers and development workers.

▪ Duffy refuses to fall into the trap of spoon-feeding the material to passive students, which only increases their passivity.

▪ During the 90s Washington fell into the trap of allowing events to dictate the relationship, with increasingly destabilising results.

▪ Journalists can fall into the trap of being hypercritical.

▪ She was not going to fall into the trap of thinking she wanted Vitor as Vitor.

▪ So answer this question truthfully, lest your smart organization fall into the trap of continuing to outsmart itself.

▪ When we tie it to jobs, or to survival needs, we fall into the trap of mechanistic literacy.

fall off the wagon

fall on deaf ears

▪ As rioting continued, Mayor Warren appealed for calm, but his words fell on deaf ears.

▪ His pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears.

▪ The workers' demand for a wage increase has fallen on deaf ears.

▪ Their requests fell on deaf ears.

▪ Arguments that some of the skills practised by pupils are obsolete fall on deaf ears, or are heeded only very slowly.

▪ But my suggestions fell on deaf ears.

▪ Invitations by Paredes to the various governors to second his plan fell on deaf ears.

▪ Pleas that the couple and their two young children will be homeless and facing financial ruin have fallen on deaf ears.

▪ They formulated a programme of demands, but these fell on deaf ears in Petrograd.

▪ Those words fell on deaf ears.

▪ Until Friday, such complaints appeared to fall on deaf ears at the Treasury.

fall on stony ground

▪ Alan's charming smile fell on stony ground with her.

▪ Joseph's words fell on stony ground.

▪ Some initiatives have already fallen on stony ground, but, as we see in subsequent features, others keep coming.

▪ Their marriages had fallen on stony ground but it seemed to me there was still hope.

fall short of sth

▪ Anything less than this is a measure of the extent to which the research falls short of scientific standards.

▪ By 1951 the Labour government had built 900,000 houses, falling short of its target of 240,000 dwellings a year.

▪ Even in the best of years, Journal news coverage inevitably falls short of perfection.

▪ On the other hand, if the firm falls short of covering its fixed costs, a loss will be incurred.

▪ Reality has a way of falling short of the ideal.

▪ The results fell short of eight analysts' forecasts of profit between 130 million and 127 million pounds.

▪ The trainers suggest that, as guards, they fell short of expectations.

fall to pieces

▪ If reforms are not carried out soon, the economy will simply fall to pieces.

▪ Stacy would fall to pieces if she knew Gary was cheating on her.

▪ The vase fell to pieces as soon as it hit the floor.

▪ After he left, I fell to pieces.

▪ As a result, now that the autumn rains were here, it was already showing signs of falling to pieces.

▪ He hated playing agony aunt but he couldn't afford to have Hirschfeldt falling to pieces.

▪ I suppose it's just about falling to pieces.

▪ Supposing the union fell to pieces, these were the fracture lines along which it would naturally break.

▪ The house was filthy, she realized, practically falling to pieces.

▪ The media seemed to be willing the marriage to fall to pieces.

▪ The Soviet Union is falling to pieces; a bloody struggle for those pieces can not be ruled out.

fall victim to sb/sth

▪ And dying for a drink.The badger falls victim to the drought.

▪ Bill Vaughan, returned the favor last year after the Baptist church fell victim to arson.

▪ Don't allow yourself to fall victim to self-fulfilling prophecy.

▪ Even Jim Harrick fell victim to the mood.

▪ For one thing, government economic statistics have fallen victim to the fiscal paralysis in Washington.

▪ Many of you who do use your talents and prosper in the business may fall victim to its pressures.

▪ Not one has ever fallen victim to a gangland-style hit after coming forward with solid information.

▪ Numbers of large mammals, including elephants, will have fallen victim to booby traps and land-mines.

fall/collapse etc in a heap

▪ Ace, Defries and Bernice fell in a heap.

▪ Graham never saw what hit him, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

▪ Sure enough, the Mean Machine runs the same play again and Budanski collapses in a heap, not breathing.

▪ The foreigner stumbled on a few steps, his brains leaking out around his earphones, and collapsed in a heap.

▪ The gallant commander and his horse fell in a heap... the horse dead, the rider unhurt.

▪ The lion fell in a heap, and she got a steel knee on top of it.

▪ Who knew when she might collapse in a heap of baubles and bangles?

fall/get into the wrong hands

▪ A crossed cheque therefore gives some protection against fraud if it falls into the wrong hands.

▪ And images of Kurds on tape could fall into the wrong hands.

▪ But some gun dealers have stopped selling replicas, because they're worried about them falling into the wrong hands.

▪ Cards falling into the wrong hands cost the industry three hundred pounds every minute.

▪ I will never allow Kirsty to fall into the wrong hands.

▪ Pentagon officials say they have already had some success reducing the risk that nuclear materials will fall into the wrong hands.

▪ Voice over Mr Foulkes is seeking Government safeguards to prevent Rayo from falling into the wrong hands.

fall/land on your feet

▪ After some ups and downs, young Mr Davison has landed on his feet.

▪ Even in an industry that shrinks faster than microwave bacon, the good people landed on their feet.

▪ Forgive the cliché, but for once I have fallen on my feet.

▪ He pushed the floor, and flipped over in the air, landing on his feet.

▪ However he landed on his feet.

▪ Jonathon is a trained musician filling in as a cleaner between jobs and he fell on his feet at the Oxford Playhouse.

▪ This is a company that tends to land on its feet.

fall/slip through the net

▪ Even with the former region's history of testing in primaries, children continue to slip through the net.

▪ Graham, on the other hand, had nearly slipped through the net.

▪ In a child-centred class of 30 children it is easy for some to slip through the net and learn nothing.

▪ No one knows how many have slipped through the net.

▪ One group still fell through the net.

▪ Paul Merton slipped through the net.

▪ This one slipped through the net.

in one fell swoop

▪ A single company can eliminate 74,000 jobs in one fell swoop.

▪ Can you imagine it, to have grown up insane and then in one fell swoop to achieve sanity?

▪ Compton had not been laid out, like Lakewood, in one fell swoop.

▪ Despite the drop-off, analysts said they were encouraged by the elimination of the securities in one fell swoop.

▪ I think it might solve the whole problem in one fell swoop.

▪ The most difficult thing afoot is to keep our problem child from blowing it in one fell swoop.

it fell off the back of a lorry

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

the bottom drops/falls out of the market

the fallen

the roof falls/caves in

▪ The Warriors were leading, with only a few minutes of the game to go, when the roof fell in.

▪ It may not be long before the roof falls in.

the scales fell from sb's eyes

▪ It's high time the scales fell from our eyes, and our bathrooms.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ A light rain was falling.

▪ A shadow fell across his face, hiding his expression.

▪ A tree had fallen across the road and blocked it.

▪ Aston Villa fell 3 places in the league after their defeat by Barnsley.

▪ Bombs fell on the streets, destroying neighbouring homes, but leaving the school intact.

▪ Careful that box doesn't fall on you, Charlotte!

▪ Darkness fell on the town and the streetlights came on one by one.

▪ Don't worry - I'll catch you if you fall.

▪ Fred fell out of the tree and broke his arm.

▪ George held on tightly, afraid that he might fall.

▪ He reportedly fell in battle on June 17th.

▪ I can't find my passport - it must have fallen out of my pocket.

▪ I sat in bed, listening to the rain fall.

▪ Just as we were about to leave the house, rain began to fall.

▪ Katie fell and scraped her knee.

▪ Leaves were falling from the trees.

▪ Maria's hair fell over her shoulders.

▪ One of the climbers fell fifty feet.

▪ She opened the cupboard and everything fell out.

▪ She was going up the stairs when she fell.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ A man tall and princely-looking was sitting by the hearth where the firelight fell full on him.

▪ He remembered Hause Point, he remembered the abyss he had so often fallen into.

▪ It is mature and spontaneous utterance falling like ripe leaves on a still day in the fall of the year.

▪ Its price fell 75 yen per 50, 000 in face value.

▪ Mabel Boll was exactly the kind of person upon whom Guest was determined the mantle of fame would not fall.

▪ Mukhamedov's defection two years ago, just as Communism was falling apart, will not be forgiven in a hurry.

▪ One of the glasses had fallen on to its side and a red stain had spread from it on to the tablecloth.

▪ She watched the keys fall, noting that they fell more slowly than they would have done on the Earth.

II.noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

bad

▪ You will forgive him using but he had a bad fall yesterday and has damaged his ankle.

▪ Moceanu took a bad fall midway through her routine on the beam.

▪ You took a bad fall - twenty feet, maybe - almost vertical.

▪ This impasse was made worse by continued falls in copper prices until the mid-1980s.

dramatic

▪ The most striking change between 1975 and 1988 has been the dramatic fall in youth employment from 60% to 20%.

▪ Most domestic items, particularly those made of wood show a dramatic fall after the mid-seventeenth century.

▪ Perhaps the most dramatic fall from grace was the case of Hu Yaobang.

free

▪ Thus we have verified that a transformation to a frame in free fall is always possible. 6.7.

▪ It is emphasized here that there is no rotation in a frame in free fall.

▪ The northeastern flank is the lowest, but still promises 500 feet of free fall.

▪ Wild speculation, low margin requirements and sheer panic triggered the free fall that set off the Great Depression.

▪ In free fall, only the force of gravity is acting so the body is not in compression.

▪ But as they go into production the stock exchanges go into free fall.

last

▪ When they met in Paris last fall, they knew they were made for each other.

▪ Since Richard left for California last fall, my bank account has grown by leaps and bounds.

▪ Compared to last fall, maybe a little.

▪ Preliminary evidence of lapses at Penn emerged after Gelsinger's death last fall.

sharp

▪ An inadequate person in a job can lead to a sharp fall in morale or sales.

▪ The first and most striking thing about these figures is the sharp fall which they show.

▪ And unemployment generally brings a sharp fall in income.

▪ There has been a sharp fall in the number of reported rapes involving strangers; these account for 12 % of attacks.

▪ As a result we have seen a sharp fall in the numbers who sleep rough on our streets.

▪ This period has seen a sharp fall in the average rate of growth as compared to the earlier post-war experience.

▪ However, in April there were further sharp falls in the price of shares and the value of the yen.

▪ However, a sharp fall in the dollar would be awkward for the Fed.

steep

▪ Whether the steep falls of yesterday turn into something more serious remains to be seen.

▪ Separately, shares in forestry companies declined amid forecasts of a steep fall in cellulose prices, analysts said.

▪ The steep fall in interest rates over the past two years has boosted their operating profits enormously.

▪ The latter's performance is attributed to steep falls in smoking.

▪ Two rival companies, Toshiba and Hitachi, saw a steep fall in profits.

■ NOUN

campaign

▪ Clinton, 49, has not sought directly to exploit the age issue in the fall campaign.

▪ Better perhaps to leave these choices to the next president, and encourage further debate in the fall campaign.

▪ They come from states that Clinton carried in 1992, which will again be battlegrounds in the fall campaign.

▪ Cisneros said that he would continue his efforts during the fall campaign to enlist Hispanic support for Clinton.

▪ In fact, the two have staked out their own separate areas of the fall campaign.

guy

▪ To this end, one of the younger Communist shop stewards in the plot had agreed to be the fall guy.

▪ Beamish, thought Henry, could be the fall guy.

■ VERB

rise

▪ She, of course, becomes agitated and it's so lovely to watch full ripe bosoms rise and fall!

▪ Tax rates rise and fall, but the individual and the business are always treated differently.

▪ Budget costs would rise further, not fall.

▪ The wind blows through the long grasses and the grass seems to rise and fall in waves.

▪ Whether it rises or falls will naturally affect taxation.

▪ In other words, does Y rise or fall consistently as X rises?

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a fallen woman

▪ She was a fallen woman, and her hair knew it.

▪ Whatever she can urge in mitigation, she is a fallen woman for the rest of her life.

be riding for a fall

▪ He seems to be riding for a fall, almost recklessly risk-taking.