WINDFALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does windfall mean? 

• WINDFALL (noun)
  The noun WINDFALL has 2 senses:

1. fruit that has fallen from the tree

2. a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)

  Familiarity information: WINDFALL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WINDFALL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fruit that has fallen from the tree

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("windfall" is a kind of...):

edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

bonanza; boom; bunce; godsend; gold rush; gravy; manna from heaven; windfall

Context example:

the demand for testing has created a boom for those unregulated laboratories where boxes of specimen jars are processed like an assembly line

Hypernyms ("windfall" is a kind of...):

happening; natural event; occurrence; occurrent (an event that happens)

 Context examples 

An unexpected windfall might be yours over the weekend of March 7-8 when Venus, your ruler, conjoins surprise-a-minute Uranus in your eighth house of other people’s money.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)