What is "to try a fall"

Fall \Fall\, n.

1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.

2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was walking on ice, and had a fall.

3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin.

   They thy fall conspire.
   --Denham.

   Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
   --Prov. xvi. 18.

4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire.

   Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.
   --Pope.

5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town; as, the fall of Sebastopol.

6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents.

7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.

8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.

9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.

10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice.
    --Addison.

11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water of a stream has a fall of five feet.

12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.

    What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how, last fall, he raised the weekly bills.
    --Dryden.

13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of snow.

14. The act of felling or cutting down. ``The fall of timber.''
    --Johnson.

15. Lapse or declension from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.

16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a faule.
    --B. Jonson.

17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting.

    Fall herring (Zo["o]l.), a herring of the Atlantic ( Clupea mediocris); -- also called tailor herring, and hickory shad.

    To try a fall, to try a bout at wrestling.
    --Shak.