Definition

1. Verb (intransitive):
   • To diminish in size, amount, or intensity: To gradually become smaller, fewer, or weaker.
   • To decline in quality or condition; to get worse: To deteriorate or become less effective.

Usage and Examples

• Diminish in size or intensity:

  • The sound of the engine fell away as the car disappeared down the road.
  • Public interest in the story began to fall away after a few weeks.

• Get worse; decline:

  • His commitment to the project seems to be falling away.
  • If your performance falls away, you risk losing your position on the team.

Advanced Usage

• "to fall away from something": To gradually stop supporting, believing in, or being involved with something.
  • Many supporters fell away from the movement when its goals changed.
• Used to describe physical erosion or collapse.
  • The cliff edge is dangerous where the rock has fallen away.

Variants and Related Words

• Fall off (phrasal verb): Very similar in meaning, often used interchangeably with "fall away" in the context of decline or reduction.
  • Sales have fallen off this quarter.
• Drop away (phrasal verb): Can be synonymous, especially for describing a steep decline or a surface dropping steeply.
  • The ground drops away suddenly at the edge of the canyon.

Synonyms

• Decrease: To become smaller or fewer.
• Decline: To become weaker, smaller, or worse.
• Dwindle: To diminish gradually in size, amount, or strength.
• Slacken: To reduce or become less intense.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Fall back: To move back; to retreat.
• Fall behind: To fail to keep up with a pace or standard.
• Fall out: To argue and stop being friendly; to happen as a result.

Related Idioms

• To fall by the wayside: To fail to continue, to be abandoned. This idiom shares the concept of gradual decline or dropping out.
  • Many New Year's resolutions fall by the wayside by February.

Verb

1. diminish in size or intensity
2. get worse
   • My grades are slipping