资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.