Talk:fall

Sundry notes
The names of seasons are not capitalised. "Fall" is therefore a common noun in the sense of the season. Moving back to under "Noun" section. &mdash; Paul G 16:19, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

What about "to fall in battle"? 85.167.142.61 08:42, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

ISTM that "the Fall" (capitalized), AKA "the Fall of Adam" or "the Fall of Man" merits separate mention. If there is no objection in a few days, I will add it. TomS TDotO 16:41, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

RFV-sense passed due to well-known work
See this discussion. — Beobach 04:37, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April–October 2012
Rfv-sense "(transitive, archaic) To cause something to descend to the ground (to drop it); especially to cause a tree to descend to the ground by cutting it down (felling it)". Tagged but not listed. There is one quotation under this sense, though it may or may not support this sense. - -sche (discuss) 20:14, 23 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I looked around and could not find anybody who explained this Shakespearean use of "fell," but the OED includes it as a citation under the meaning of fall: "To let fall, drop; to shed (tears); to cast, shed (leaves); to bring down (a weapon, the hand, etc.)." As English is losing the few vt/vi pairs it has (rise/raise, lie/lay, fall/fell), "fall a tree" seems likely instead of "fell (a tree)." --BenjaminBarrett12 (talk) 20:35, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I think the rfved sense itself is an error for fell, but, as you say, this may have evolved from an error to a nonstandard usage out in the real world. The Shakespeare quote is different: instead of cause to fall it seems to be allow to fall. If the rfv fails, maybe we can replace the sense with the one suggested by the Shakespeare quote and the OED passage. Chuck Entz (talk) 05:15, 24 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The Shakespeare quote seems clearly to mean "bring down (a weapon)." It's labelled as archaic, though citations can probably be found that are more modern for various meanings, including "fell (a tree)" which sounds obsolete to me. --BenjaminBarrett12 (talk) 02:46, 25 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Resolved: sense removed / RFV-failed for now. - -sche (discuss) 19:56, 1 October 2012 (UTC)

A cake falling
What is this exactly? Something that goes wrong with a baked cake (possibly also bread?). Does it need a separate sense? Equinox ◑ 15:48, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

RFV discussion: December 2021
Rfv-sense: To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; said of the young of certain animals. - supposedly a Shakespeare quote around Notusbutthem (talk) 00:05, 7 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Johnson has a Shakespeare quote for the transitive equivalent of this sense (our sense 7), but not for the intransitive sense under RFV. However, he has a quote from Mortimer's Husbandry: "Lambs must have care taken of them at their first falling, else, while they are weak, the crows and magpies will be apt to pick out their eyes." (The mention of "first" falling is curious; what would be their second falling?)
 * I can't find any other relevant uses in Shakespeare, but my searching was only level 6. This, that and the other (talk) 12:06, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 07:32, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 20:22, 22 December 2021 (UTC)