Meaning & use
fall down
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Meanings
phrasephrasal verb
To drop to the ground, especially from a standing position or after losing balance.
Grammar: No object: the child fell down. The verb changes (fell down, fallen down).
Patterns
- fall down on something
- fall down the stairs
The toddler fell down and scraped her knee.
Be careful on the ice, or you might fall down.
He fell down the steps and twisted his ankle.
phrasephrasal verb
To collapse, or to come apart from age, weakness or damage.
Grammar: Used with buildings, fences and structures: the barn is falling down.
Patterns
- be falling down
The old shed is falling down after years of neglect.
After the storm, several fences fell down.
The tower will fall down if the base is not repaired.
phrasephrasal verbfigurative
To fail in a particular respect, or to be weak or faulty at a point.
Grammar: Usually followed by on: the plan falls down on cost. Used figuratively.
Patterns
- fall down on something
The theory falls down on one important point.
The team fell down on defense in the second half.
Your argument falls down because it ignores the evidence.
Word forms
| third person singular | falls down |
|---|---|
| past tense | fell down |
| past participle | fallen down |
| -ing form | falling down |
Common combinations
- fall down the stairs
- She fell down the stairs but was not badly hurt.
- fall down on the job
- The new assistant fell down on the job in his first week.
- fall down on a point
- The argument falls down on this key point.
- fall down in a heap
- He tripped and fell down in a heap.
- falling down with age
- The cottage was falling down with age.
Synonyms and how they differ
- collapse
- Collapse is stronger and suggests falling in suddenly, often from structural failure or exhaustion.
- tumble
- Tumble suggests a clumsy, rolling fall and is a little less serious than fall down.
- trip
- Trip describes catching your foot on something, and may or may not end in an actual fall.
- fail
- Fail is the general word for not succeeding, whereas fall down on is a figurative way of pointing to the exact weak spot.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fall down or fall over? fall down or break down?
fall down vs fall over
Fall over means to fall from an upright position to the ground, and it is often used for people and objects; fall down is used for the same event but also for collapsing buildings and failing arguments.
fall down vs break down
Break down means stop working, as a machine does, and fall down does not usually describe machines.
Practice
The report was well written, but the plan ___ on cost.
Choose one answer.
Fall down on is the figurative phrase meaning to be weak in one respect. Fall out, over and off do not take the same meaning with on cost.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fall down”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.