(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
<adj.all> a barbarous crime brutal beatings cruel tortures Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks a savage slap vicious kicks
Fall \Fall\ (f[add]l), v. i. [imp. {Fell} (f[e^]l); p. p. {Fallen} (f[add]l"'n); p. pr. & vb. n. {Falling}.] [AS. feallan; akin to D. vallen, OS. & OHG. fallan, G. fallen, Icel. Falla, Sw. falla, Dan. falde, Lith. pulti, L. fallere to deceive, Gr. sfa`llein to cause to fall, Skr. sphal, sphul, to tremble. Cf. {Fail}, {Fell}, v. t., to cause to fall.] 1. To Descend, either suddenly or gradually; particularly, to descend by the force of gravity; to drop; to sink; as, the apple falls; the tide falls; the mercury falls in the barometer.
I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. --Luke x. 18.
2. To cease to be erect; to take suddenly a recumbent posture; to become prostrate; to drop; as, a child totters and falls; a tree falls; a worshiper falls on his knees.
I fell at his feet to worship him. --Rev. xix. 10.
3. To find a final outlet; to discharge its waters; to empty; -- with into; as, the river Rhone falls into the Mediterranean.
4. To become prostrate and dead; to die; especially, to die by violence, as in battle.
A thousand shall fall at thy side. --Ps. xci. 7.
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. --Byron.
5. To cease to be active or strong; to die away; to lose strength; to subside; to become less intense; as, the wind falls.
6. To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; -- said of the young of certain animals. --Shak.
7. To decline in power, glory, wealth, or importance; to become insignificant; to lose rank or position; to decline in weight, value, price etc.; to become less; as, the price falls; stocks fell two points.
I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master. --Shak.
The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished. --Sir J. Davies.
8. To be overthrown or captured; to be destroyed.
Heaven and earth will witness, If Rome must fall, that we are innocent. --Addison.
9. To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin; to depart from the faith; to apostatize; to sin.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. --Heb. iv. 11.
10. To become insnared or embarrassed; to be entrapped; to be worse off than before; as, to fall into error; to fall into difficulties.
11. To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; -- said of the countenance.
Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. --Gen. iv. 5.
I have observed of late thy looks are fallen. --Addison.
12. To sink; to languish; to become feeble or faint; as, our spirits rise and fall with our fortunes.
13. To pass somewhat suddenly, and passively, into a new state of body or mind; to become; as, to fall asleep; to fall into a passion; to fall in love; to fall into temptation.
14. To happen; to to come to pass; to light; to befall; to issue; to terminate.
The Romans fell on this model by chance. --Swift.
Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. --Ruth. iii. 18.
They do not make laws, they fall into customs. --H. Spencer.
15. To come; to occur; to arrive.
The vernal equinox, which at the Nicene Council fell on the 21st of March, falls now [1694] about ten days sooner. --Holder.
16. To begin with haste, ardor, or vehemence; to rush or hurry; as, they fell to blows.
They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul. --Jowett (Thucyd. ).
17. To pass or be transferred by chance, lot, distribution, inheritance, or otherwise; as, the estate fell to his brother; the kingdom fell into the hands of his rivals.
18. To belong or appertain.
If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget them all. --Pope.
19. To be dropped or uttered carelessly; as, an unguarded expression fell from his lips; not a murmur fell from him.
{To fall abroad of} (Naut.), to strike against; -- applied to one vessel coming into collision with another.
{To fall among}, to come among accidentally or unexpectedly.
{To fall astern} (Naut.), to move or be driven backward; to be left behind; as, a ship falls astern by the force of a current, or when outsailed by another.
{To fall away}. (a) To lose flesh; to become lean or emaciated; to pine. (b) To renounce or desert allegiance; to revolt or rebel. (c) To renounce or desert the faith; to apostatize. ``These . . . for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.'' --Luke viii. 13. (d) To perish; to vanish; to be lost. ``How . . . can the soul . . . fall away into nothing?'' --Addison. (e) To decline gradually; to fade; to languish, or become faint. ``One color falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly.'' --Addison.
{To fall back}. (a) To recede or retreat; to give way. (b) To fail of performing a promise or purpose; not to fulfill.
{To fall back upon} or {To fall back on}. (a) (Mil.) To retreat for safety to (a stronger position in the rear, as to a fort or a supporting body of troops). (b) To have recourse to (a reserved fund, a more reliable alternative, or some other available expedient or support).
{To fall calm}, to cease to blow; to become calm.
{To fall down}. (a) To prostrate one's self in worship. ``All kings shall fall down before him.'' --Ps. lxxii. 11. (b) To sink; to come to the ground. ``Down fell the beauteous youth.'' --Dryden. (c) To bend or bow, as a suppliant. (d) (Naut.) To sail or drift toward the mouth of a river or other outlet.
{To fall flat}, to produce no response or result; to fail of the intended effect; as, his speech fell flat.
{To fall foul of}. (a) (Naut.) To have a collision with; to become entangled with (b) To attack; to make an assault upon.
{To fall from}, to recede or depart from; not to adhere to; as, to fall from an agreement or engagement; to fall from allegiance or duty.
{To fall from grace} (M. E. Ch.), to sin; to withdraw from the faith.
{To fall home} (Ship Carp.), to curve inward; -- said of the timbers or upper parts of a ship's side which are much within a perpendicular.
{To fall in}. (a) To sink inwards; as, the roof fell in. (b) (Mil.) To take one's proper or assigned place in line; as, to fall in on the right. (c) To come to an end; to terminate; to lapse; as, on the death of Mr. B., the annuuity, which he had so long received, fell in. (d) To become operative. ``The reversion, to which he had been nominated twenty years before, fell in.'' --Macaulay.
{To fall into one's hands}, to pass, often suddenly or unexpectedly, into one's ownership or control; as, to spike cannon when they are likely to fall into the hands of the enemy.
{To fall in with}. (a) To meet with accidentally; as, to fall in with a friend. (b) (Naut.) To meet, as a ship; also, to discover or come near, as land. (c) To concur with; to agree with; as, the measure falls in with popular opinion. (d) To comply; to yield to. ``You will find it difficult to persuade learned men to fall in with your projects.'' --Addison.
{To fall off}. (a) To drop; as, fruits fall off when ripe. (b) To withdraw; to separate; to become detached; as, friends fall off in adversity. ``Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide.'' --Shak. (c) To perish; to die away; as, words fall off by disuse. (d) To apostatize; to forsake; to withdraw from the faith, or from allegiance or duty.
Those captive tribes . . . fell off From God to worship calves. --Milton. (e) To forsake; to abandon; as, his customers fell off. (f) To depreciate; to change for the worse; to deteriorate; to become less valuable, abundant, or interesting; as, a falling off in the wheat crop; the magazine or the review falls off. ``O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!'' --Shak. (g) (Naut.) To deviate or trend to the leeward of the point to which the head of the ship was before directed; to fall to leeward.
{To fall on}. (a) To meet with; to light upon; as, we have fallen on evil days. (b) To begin suddenly and eagerly. ``Fall on, and try the appetite to eat.'' --Dryden. (c) To begin an attack; to assault; to assail. ``Fall on, fall on, and hear him not.'' --Dryden. (d) To drop on; to descend on.
{To fall out}. (a) To quarrel; to begin to contend.
A soul exasperated in ills falls out With everything, its friend, itself. --Addison. (b) To happen; to befall; to chance. ``There fell out a bloody quarrel betwixt the frogs and the mice.'' --L'Estrange. (c) (Mil.) To leave the ranks, as a soldier.
{To fall over}. (a) To revolt; to desert from one side to another. (b) To fall beyond. --Shak.
{To fall short}, to be deficient; as, the corn falls short; they all fall short in duty.
{To fall through}, to come to nothing; to fail; as, the engageent has fallen through.
{To fall to}, to begin. ``Fall to, with eager joy, on homely food.'' --Dryden.
{To fall under}. (a) To come under, or within the limits of; to be subjected to; as, they fell under the jurisdiction of the emperor. (b) To come under; to become the subject of; as, this point did not fall under the cognizance or deliberations of the court; these things do not fall under human sight or observation. (c) To come within; to be ranged or reckoned with; to be subordinate to in the way of classification; as, these substances fall under a different class or order.
{To fall upon}. (a) To attack. [See {To fall on}.] (b) To attempt; to have recourse to. ``I do not intend to fall upon nice disquisitions.'' --Holder. (c) To rush against.
Note: Fall primarily denotes descending motion, either in a perpendicular or inclined direction, and, in most of its applications, implies, literally or figuratively, velocity, haste, suddenness, or violence. Its use is so various, and so mush diversified by modifying words, that it is not easy to enumerate its senses in all its applications.
Fell \Fell\, a. [OE. fel, OF. fel cruel, fierce, perfidious; cf. AS. fel (only in comp.) OF. fel, as a noun also accus. felon, is fr. LL. felo, of unknown origin; cf. Arm fall evil, Ir. feal, Arm. falloni treachery, Ir. & Gael. feall to betray; or cf. OHG. fillan to flay, torment, akin to E. fell skin. Cf. {Felon}.] 1. Cruel; barbarous; inhuman; fierce; savage; ravenous.
While we devise fell tortures for thy faults. --Shak.
2. Eager; earnest; intent. [Obs.]
I am so fell to my business. --Pepys.
Fell \Fell\, imp. of {Fall}.
Fell \Fell\, n. (Mining) The finer portions of ore which go through the meshes, when the ore is sorted by sifting.
Fell \Fell\, v. t. [Cf. Gael. fill to fold, plait, Sw. f[*a]ll a hem.] To sew or hem; -- said of seams.
Fell \Fell\, n. 1. (Sewing) A form of seam joining two pieces of cloth, the edges being folded together and the stitches taken through both thicknesses.
2. (Weaving) The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.
Fell \Fell\, n. [Cf. L. fel gall, bile, or E. fell, a.] Gall; anger; melancholy. [Obs.]
Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell. --Spenser.
Fell \Fell\, n. [AS. fell; akin to D. vel, OHG. fel, G. fell, Icel. fell (in comp.), Goth fill in [thorn]rutsfill leprosy, L. pellis skin, G. ?. Cf. {Film}, {Peel}, {Pell}, n.] A skin or hide of a beast with the wool or hair on; a pelt; -- used chiefly in composition, as woolfell.
We are still handling our ewes, and their fells, you know, are greasy. --Shak.
Fell \Fell\, n. [Icel. fell, fjally; akin to Sw. fj["a]ll a ridge or chain of mountains, Dan. fjeld mountain, rock and prob. to G. fels rock, or perh. to feld field, E. field.] 1. A barren or rocky hill. --T. Gray.
2. A wild field; a moor. --Dryton.
Fell \Fell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Felled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Felling}.] [AS. fellan, a causative verb fr. feallan to fall; akin to D. vellen, G. f["a]llen, Icel. fella, Sw. f["a]lla, Dan. f[ae]lde. See {Fall}, v. i.] To cause to fall; to prostrate; to bring down or to the ground; to cut down.
Stand, or I'll fell thee down. --Shak.
The yield on 30-year Treasury bonds fell to 8.54%, the lowest level since mid-July of last year and down from 9 1/8% as recently as about two weeks ago.
Stock prices fell today as traders warily awaited the latest monthly report on employment.
Light rain fell along the New England coastline early today and a wave of severe thunderstorms lashed the Midwest.
ICN shares fell 62.5 cents Friday to close at $6.50 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Showers and thunderstorms fell Saturday across the eastern United States after violent storms that included tornadoes in four states.
Bond prices, which had been up in early trading, fell in response to the purchasing managers report, and the stock market followed suit.
Rain also fell in sections of the Dakotas, while snowshowers were scattered from western Nebraska into the central Colorado Rockies.
'When they went on strike in 1989, Gorbachev fell.
The stock, which proved immune to sharp declines in the market last week, fell 3 7/8 yesterday, to 36 5/8, even though the company reported higher earnings.
Some 39 per cent of life insurance respondents said that sales volumes actually fell in the period, in spite of expectations that they would rise.
Last week, the total fell by 21.
The November contract fell as low as $5.89 a bushel, its lowest level since Aug. 3, before bouncing back late in the session.
Snow fell over the Rockies and the Plains today, and up to 7 inches of rain drenched southern Florida.
Stock prices fell today amid renewed worries over the interest-rate outlook.
Construction payrolls fell by 14,000 and manufacturing jobs by 18,000, according to the Labor Department's survey of business establishments.
Group pretax profit for 1991 fell 19% from a year earlier to 63.59 billion yen ($490 million).
In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday MGM/UA shares fell $1 to $20.
Despite surging to an all-time high Wednesday of 527.82, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.71, or 0.51%, for the week.
Sales in the sluggish Northeast market, which had risen 9.3 percent in April, fell back 5.6 percent in May to 84,000 units at an annual rate.
BBC1's tabloid telly series 999 (9.30) which shows films or reconstructions of heroic rescues today screens an amateur video record of the boy who fell into the gorilla pit at London Zoo.
Revenue fell to $5.4 million from $6 million.
In natural gas trading, the July contract fell to $1.602 per 1,000 cubic feet from $1.613 Tuesday.
The tax fears took L100 off Generali to L28,390 while Fondiaria fell L793 to L27,697. PARIS was lifted by a firm opening on Wall Street but volume was generated by big block trades in BSN, Lyonnaise des Eaux and Generale des Eaux.
Overall, some forecasters say corporate profits fell to an annual rate of about $145 billion in the fourth quarter, down 12% to 15% from a year earlier.
They fell into oblivion after the 1929 crash.
The dollar fell especially sharply against the yen. Gold prices drifted slightly lower yesterday; oil futures were mixed.
The shares fell 12 to 657p. Royal Insurance moved 4 ahead to 319p, following a recommendation from NatWest Securities.
But it fell into the minus column after profit-taking developed in shares of securities houses, drug makers, real-estate concerns and other companies.
Sales of cars and light trucks built in North America fell 15.4% early this month from a year earlier.
A mother raccoon and her two babies who fell through a library ceiling were back in their attic nest Wednesday after spending a day browsing through the reference section.