fall away

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See also: fallaway

English

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Verb

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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, Luke 8:13:
      These [] for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
    • 1987 April 11, John Birmingham, “If Only Cardinals Law and O'Connor Were Gay!”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
      My "ex"es include both practicing and fallen-away Catholics and Jews.
  2. (intransitive) To diminish in size, weight, or intensity.
    Coordinate terms: fade away, fall off, slip away, tail off, taper off, trail off
    • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics:
      One colour falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly.
    • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wreccker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:
      While long-distance and commuter rail travel still fared well, train travel to seaside resorts was perhaps inevitably falling away.
  3. (intransitive) To perish; to vanish; to be lost.
  4. (intransitive, of terrain) To slope downward.

Derived terms

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