Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A junction; a falling or running together, as of streams; the joining of one road with another.
  • noun The inlet or place where water enters a reservoir or basin: generally confined to cases where the water in entering pours or falls in.
  • noun An incursion; an inroad.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or process of falling in.
  • noun An incursion; an inroad.
  • noun countable The area where water, storm runoff, etc., enters a storm drain.
  • noun astronomy, uncountable Movement towards a massive astronomical body under the influence of gravity; especially the process whereby gas falls towards a neutron star or black hole at high speed, forming a plasma
  • verb intransitive To fall in.
  • verb intransitive, astronomy To undergo infall.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From in- +‎ fall.

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Examples

  • The infall is much smaller now, on the order of 5,500 tons per year and most in the form of micrometeorites or even smaller particles of interplanetary dust.

    First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

  • The infall is much smaller now, on the order of 5,500 tons per year and most in the form of micrometeorites or even smaller particles of interplanetary dust.

    First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

  • At this point the sky falls in and the editor, crying “Enough!” crouches submissively to the swaying floor, sobbing and crying like a baby pulverised by meteoric infall

    The Odds Against Science Fiction « Write Anything 2010

  • For how the energetic cycles of that power the cell emerged, that alone has only entertained many interesting possibilities, hot core and cooler oceans, reducing ocean/sea floor/land and more oxidizing atmosphere, molecules generated by incubation in space and subsequent infall to earth, reacting with terrestrial molecules, photochemistry (from a uv-rich sun), concentration gradients of a wide variety of sorts, reactions of molecules produced by energetic processes involving meteor impact/burnup.

    Alice In Wonderland official trailer 2009

  • The power source for everything they were attempting to accomplish was the infall of matter from the three brown dwarf stars.

    On the Spot at BSC – Thomas Harlan interview 2009

  • The result of that infall was the generation of a rotating magnetic field of tremendous strength.

    On the Spot at BSC – Thomas Harlan interview 2009

  • The amount of surface runoff and infiltration depends upon several factors: water infall rate, surface moisture, soil or rock texture, type and amount of surface cover (e.g., leaves and rooted plants), and surface topography.

    AP Environmental Science Chapter 2- The Cycling of Matter 2008

  • However, there is a fine tuning problem with the initial distribution of causally-connected local matter and energy at the “time of first infall”.

    Incompatible Arrows, III: Lewis Carroll Sean 2008

  • “Some eigenstate of the orientation operator” really means an infall of particles with which we can construct a * statistically normal* map.

    Quantum Hyperion Sean 2008

  • “If,” said he, “your Excellency wishes to make an infall into Argyleshire, this poor man, Ranald, of whom I told you, together with his children and companions, know every pass into that land, both leading from the east and from the north.”

    A Legend of Montrose 2008

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