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The Collaborative International Dictionary
fall like dominoes

Domino \Dom"i*no\, n.; pl. Dominos or (esp. the pieces for a game) Dominoes. [F. domino, or It. domin[`o], or Sp. domin['o], fr. L. dominus master. The domino was orig. a hood worn by the canons of a cathedral. See Don, Dame.]

  1. A kind of hood worn by the canons of a cathedral church; a sort of amice.
    --Kersey.

  2. A mourning veil formerly worn by women.

  3. A kind of mask; particularly, a half mask worn at masquerades, to conceal the upper part of the face. Dominos were formerly worn by ladies in traveling.

  4. A costume worn as a disguise at masquerades, consisting of a robe with a hood adjustable at pleasure.

  5. A person wearing a domino.

  6. pl. A game played by two or more persons, with twenty-eight pieces of wood, bone, or ivory, of a flat, oblong shape, plain at the back, but on the face divided by a line in the middle, and either left blank or variously dotted after the manner of dice. The game is played by matching the spots or the blank of an unmatched half of a domino already played
    --Hoyle.

  7. One of the pieces with which the game of dominoes is played.
    --Hoyle.

    fall like dominoes. To fall sequentially, as when one object in a line, by falling against the next object, causes it in turn to fall, and that second object causes a third to fall, etc.; the process can be repeated an indefinite number of times.

    Note: The phrase is derived from an entertainment using dominoes arranged in a row, each standing on edge and therefore easily knocked over; when the first is made to fall against the next, it starts a sequence which ends when all have fallen. For amusement, people have arranged such sequences involving thousands of dominoes, arrayed in fanciful patterns.

Usage examples of "fall like dominoes".

Take over Shad, cut off the tridenite supply, watch a score of inhabited planets in Quadrant J-221 fall like dominoes, and sweep in to conquer a valuable flank of the United Federation of Planets.

Take care of one problem at a time and you find they all fall like dominoes.