Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A loss of wealth, rank, reputation, or happiness; ruin.
  • noun A cause of ruin.
  • noun A fall of rain or snow, especially a heavy or unexpected one.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A falling downward; a fall; descent: as, the downfall of a stream.
  • noun What falls downward; a waterfall.
  • noun A pit; an abyss.
  • noun Descent or fall to a lower position or standing; complete failure or overthrow; ruin: as, the downfall of Napoleon.
  • noun Waning; decay.
  • noun A kind of trap in which a weight or missile falls down when the set is sprung; a deadfall. See the extract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A sudden fall; a body of things falling.
  • noun A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin.

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

  • noun A precipitous decline in fortune; a rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
  • noun The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
  • verb intransitive To fall down; deteriorate; decline.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun failure that results in a loss of position or reputation
  • noun a sudden decline in strength or number or importance
  • noun the falling to earth of any form of water (rain or snow or hail or sleet or mist)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From down- +‎ fall.

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