free fall
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A state of rapid and uncontrolled decline: A sudden, sharp, and continuous decrease in value, amount, or quality, often used in economic or figurative contexts.
- The motion of an object moving under the influence of gravity alone: In physics, the ideal motion of a body where the only force acting upon it is gravity, with no other forces (like air resistance) affecting its fall.
Usage Examples
- Noun (Economic/Figurative Decline):
- The company's stock went into free fall after the scandal was announced.
- The country's currency is in free fall, losing value by the hour.
- Noun (Physics):
- Skydivers experience free fall before they open their parachutes.
- In a vacuum, a feather and a hammer would be in free fall and hit the ground simultaneously.
Advanced Usage
- "to be in free fall": To be in a state of rapid, uncontrolled decline.
- Morale in the office was in free fall after the layoffs were announced.
- "to go into free fall": To begin a state of rapid, uncontrolled decline.
- Sales went into free fall following the negative product reviews.
Variants and Related Words
- Free-fall (verb, often hyphenated): To drop or decline rapidly and uncontrollably.
- The market free-fell for three consecutive days.
- Freefalling (adjective/participle): Describing something that is in a state of free fall.
- The freefalling prices are causing panic among investors.
Synonyms
- Plummet: To fall or drop straight down at high speed.
- Nosedive: A sudden steep dive or drop; a rapid decline.
- Collapse: A sudden failure or breakdown.
- Descent: The act of moving downward.
Related Phrases
- Economic free fall: A period of rapid economic decline.
- The 2008 crisis triggered an economic free fall in many countries.
- Controlled free fall: In skydiving, a stable, belly-to-earth position during the fall before parachute deployment.
Related Idioms
- "Going down in flames": Failing completely and spectacularly. (This is a figurative idiom with a similar sense of catastrophic decline as "free fall," but is more extreme and final.)
- The project went down in flames after the lead developer quit.
Noun
- a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity
- a drop of 57 points on the Dow Jones index
- there was a drop in pressure in the pulmonary artery
- a dip in prices
- when that became known the price of their stock went into free fall
- the ideal falling motion of something subject only to a gravitational field