fall away

See also: fallaway

English

Verb

fall away (third-person singular simple present falls away, present participle falling away, simple past fell away, past participle fallen away)

1. (intransitive) To cease to support a person or cause.

   After the divorce, all his friends fell away one by one.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 8:13:

     These […] for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

   • 1987 April 11, John Birmingham, “If Only Cardinals Law and O'Connor Were Gay!”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     My "ex"es include both practicing and fallen-away Catholics and Jews.

2. (intransitive) To diminish in size, weight, or intensity.

   Coordinate terms: fade away, fall off, slip away, tail off, taper off, trail off

   • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics:

     One colour falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly.

   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wreccker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

     While long-distance and commuter rail travel still fared well, train travel to seaside resorts was perhaps inevitably falling away.

3. (intransitive) To perish; to vanish; to be lost.
   • 1711 July 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, July 7, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 111; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     How […] can the soul […] fall away into nothing?

     The spelling has been modernized.

4. (intransitive, of terrain) To slope downward.

Derived terms

• fallaway (noun)

Related terms

• fall down
• falling-out (noun)
• fall out