What is "fell back on"

Usage examples of "fell back on".

He ordered him to stretch up his hands again, but this time Ellison was prepared, and when Parkin let go the chain the boy fell back on one shoulder and avoided striking his head.

I tried to stand up, but Marnie, who was still on my lap, had grabbed the phone cord and I fell back on the chair.

And when the last of the wine was gone we fell back on an ample supply of the sailor's sheet anchor -- grog.

The troops advanced thus, pursuing the foe, till the King reached the river, where, seeing the death of so many -- for here you would see women and boys who had left the camp, there horses and men who through clinging one to another could not escape as there was so much water in the river -- and the King's troops stood on the bank, so that whenever a man appeared he was killed, and the horses that tried to clamber up by the bank of the river, unable to do so, fell back on the men, so that neither one nor the other escaped, and the elephants went into the stream, and those that they could seize were cruelly killed by them.

Their supply of prepared cartridges was then exhausted, and they fell back on their revolvers and ineffective spreading shot.

In the end they fell back on a woman, one of our comrades, and none other than Anna Roylston.

Then kneeling on his knees he vomited blood, but soon fell back on to the ground, and his eyes were again closed in darkness for he was still sturined by the blow.

Casson had the laugh strongly against him, and wisely fell back on the previous question, which, far from being exhausted in a single evening, was renewed in the churchyard, before service, the next day, with the fresh interest conferred on all news when there is a fresh person to hear it.

So he fell back on the support system that had served him in the past: getting after the job.

Then, failing to see any other workable tactic, Anton fell back on pell-mell retreat.