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