Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sudden loss of wealth, rank, reputation, or happiness; ruin.
- n. A cause of sudden ruin.
- n. A fall of rain or snow, especially a heavy or unexpected one.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A falling downward; a fall; descent: as, the downfall of a stream.
- n. What falls downward; a waterfall.
- n. A pit; an abyss.
- n. Descent or fall to a lower position or standing; complete failure or overthrow; ruin: as, the downfall of Napoleon.
- n. Waning; decay.
- n. A kind of trap in which a weight or missile falls down when the set is sprung; a deadfall. See the extract.
Wiktionary
- n. A precipitous decline in fortune; a rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
- n. The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
- v. intransitive To fall down; deteriorate; decline.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A sudden fall; a body of things falling.
- n. A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. failure that results in a loss of position or reputation
- n. a sudden decline in strength or number or importance
- n. the falling to earth of any form of water (rain or snow or hail or sleet or mist)
Etymologies
- From down- + fall. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Yes, in fact his downfall is about halfway through I'd say.”
Has the Downfall of Mike Myers Truly Begun? « FirstShowing.net
“Earth Abides, check, the downfall is a bit of a mystery.”
“In the eighteen enormous folio volumes, which he filled with his minute and gothic characters, he gives his own version of the story of what he terms his downfall, and, having, notwithstanding his prolixity, exhausted this subject in the first five of the eighteen tomes, he proceeds to deal with so much of the history of his own day as came immediately under his notice in his Cornish retirement.”
“In contrast to her previous greatness, her downfall is here, by a sudden transition, depicted under the image of a vessel foundering at sea. east wind -- blowing from Lebanon, the most violent wind in the”
“However, the manifold blunders and petty jealousies of this official are now producing such grievous results that his downfall is almost certain, and if his removal in disgrace from a position which he has proved himself totally unfit for be considered a satisfaction to those he has injured, why then I, among others, am morally assured of that amount of vengeance, at least.”
“The only downfall is that many 30. 30s have hard plastic or metal butt plates that can bite the shoulder if he is practicing with only a t-shirt on.”
Whats a good deer rifle for my son? Hes a beginner. Would a .30-.30 be to much?
“The fact that Americans would consider bringing back the party that nearly caused our downfall is incredulously stupid. sifto77”
“Her downfall is that everytime she opens her mouth, she speaks volumes about herself and her ability without knowing it.”
“As much as I like Hillary, the thought of bailing someone out, when the rest of us are still far from recovering from our economic downfall is rude, unfealing, and totally wacked.”
“Sounds like a plan, coyotes are curious animals so it would work ... but the only downfall is that they are also very jumpy and somewhat smart.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘downfall’.
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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Fall
fall, fall in with, fall in love, The Fall, Fallen Angel, fallen angel, nuclear fallout, Things Fall Apart, waterfall, Falling Water, fall apart, falling and 55 more...
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the list
i live in a human..., escapism, crush, infinite, alleviate, gallows, scapegallows, violet, downfall, whisper, watch-word, haven and 15 more...
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Things that fall
words that end in fall
befall, deadfall, dew-fall, dewfall, downfall, evenfall, foot-fall, footfall, free-fall, freefall, icefall, infall and 18 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Words next
patrimony, cacophony, fearsome, coruscating, coruscating, coruscating, dolomite, dolorous, transdermal, chatty cathy, chatterbox, incessantly and 249 more...
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working list
overkill, premonition, discombobulation, golliwogs, guerilla, paraphernalia, banter, gambit, atonement, leeway, ingenuity, haberdashery and 164 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for downfall.
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