Definitions

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

  • noun A steep descent of water from a height; a cascade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A steep fall or flow of water from a height; a cascade; a cataract.
  • noun A neck-tie or scarf with long drooping ends.
  • noun A chignon.

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

  • noun A fall, or perpendicular descent, of the water of a river or stream, or a descent nearly perpendicular; a cascade; a cataract.
  • noun (Hairdressing) An arrangement of a woman's back hair over a cushion or frame in some resemblance to a waterfall.
  • noun A certain kind of neck scarf.

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

  • noun A flow of water over the edge of a cliff.
  • noun figuratively A waterfall-like outpouring of liquid, smoke, etc.
  • noun technical, computing, slang Waterfall model
  • verb intransitive To fall like a waterfall.

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

  • noun a steep descent of the water of a river

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English waterfal, waterfalle, from Old English wæterġefeall ("waterfall"), equivalent to water +‎ fall. Cognate with West Frisian wetterfal ("waterfall"), Dutch waterval ("waterfall"), German Wasserfall ("waterfall"), Swedish vattenfall ("waterfall").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word waterfall.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • It is sometimes advised that we don't go chasing these.

    October 9, 2008

  • One really ought to stick to the rivers and the lakes that one is used to.

    October 9, 2008

  • I'm always chasing rainbows.

    October 9, 2008

  • You're so stubborn, wanting to have it your way or nothing at all.

    October 9, 2008

  • But my life is a race, just a wild goose chase,

    And my dreams have all been denied!

    October 9, 2008

  • I tried miming this once. It went badly.

    October 9, 2008

  • did you try splitting it into two?

    October 9, 2008

  • Yeah, it was the fall bit. It's hard to show how water falls just using your hands.

    October 10, 2008

  • I had to mime 'slice of pizza' once. Now that I think of it, a hot, melting slice of pizza is not so different from a waterfall.

    October 10, 2008

  • 1870: "so much hair of her own, that she never patronized either rats, mice, waterfalls, switches or puff combs", An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, Chapter XI. Needles and Tongues https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Old_Fashioned_Girl/Chapter_XI

    April 16, 2018