Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FALL, n.

1. The act of dropping or descending from a higher to a lower place by gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse or from the yard of a ship.
2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture. He was walking on ice and had a fall.
3. Death; destruction; overthrow. Our fathers had a great fall before our enemies. Judith.
4. Ruin; destruction. They conspire thy fall. Denham.
5. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; as, the fall of cardinal Wolsey. Behold thee glorious only in thy fall. Pope.
6. Declension of greatness, power or dominion; ruin; as, the fall of the Roman empire.
7. Diminution; decrease of price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents; the fall of interest.
8. Declination of sound; a sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.
9. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope. Bacon.
10. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a steep place; usually in the plural; sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara, or the Mohawk; the fall of the Hoosatonuc at Canaan. Fall is applied to a perpendicular descent, or to one that is very steep. When the descent is moderate, we name it rapids. Custom however sometimes deviates from this rule, and the rapids of rivers are called falls.
11. The outlet or discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice. Addison.
12. Extent of descent; the distance which any thing falls; as, the water of a pond has a fall of five feet.
13. The fall of the leaf; the season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.
14. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain or snow.
15. The act of felling or cutting down; as, the fall of timber.
16. Fall, or the fall, by way of distinction, the apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also the apostasy of the rebellious angels.
17. Formerly, a kind of vale. B. Jonson.
18. In seamen's language, the loose end of a tackle. Mar. Dict.
19. In Great Britain, a term applied to several measures, linear, superficial and solid. Cyc.