fall away

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 964384981, Luke 8:13:

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

2. (intransitive) To diminish in size, weight, or intensity.
   • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics

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

3. 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 191120697:

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

4. To get worse. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• fall-away, fallaway
• falling away