English Dictionary |
FALL UPON
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
IPA (US): |
Dictionary entry overview: What does fall upon mean?
• FALL UPON (verb)
The verb FALL UPON has 1 sense:
Familiarity information: FALL UPON used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Find unexpectedly
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Synonyms:
attain; chance on; chance upon; come across; come upon; discover; fall upon; happen upon; light upon; strike
Context example:
The hikers finally struck the main path to the lake
Hypernyms (to "fall upon" is one way to...):
find; regain (come upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples
When they cling like flies to the wall, and top is no less near than bottom, our men shall fall upon them from above and either side, with spears, and arrows, and guns.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
And as they continued to fall upon him, the spark of life within flickered and went down.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
I felt Peggotty's arm round my neck, but I could not have moved if the house had been about to fall upon me.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Weary Hannah slept on, and no one but the sisters saw the pale shadow which seemed to fall upon the little bed.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
White Fang trembled, waiting for the punishment to fall upon him.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
However, she gave him no rest, and said she would take care no light should fall upon him.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Death stalked everywhere, and it was only a matter of time when some one of those many huge seas would fall upon the boat, roll over it, and pass on.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
She must be the doer of everything: Lady Bertram would of course be spared all thought and exertion, and it would all fall upon her.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself." (Native American proverb, Hopi)
"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket." (Arabic proverb)
"Empty barrels make more noise." (Danish proverb)