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)

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

Derived terms

fall-away, fallaway
falling away

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.