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free fall
1noun
- the hypothetical fall of a body such that the only force acting upon it is that of gravity.
- the part of a parachute jump that precedes the opening of the parachute.
- a decline, especially a sudden or rapid decline, as in value or prestige, that appears to be endless or bottomless:
The economy was in a free fall all winter.
free-fall
2[ free-fawl ]
verb (used without object)
- (of parachutists) to descend initially, as for a designated interval, in a free fall:
The jumpers were required to free-fall for eight seconds.
adjective
- denoting or suggesting a free fall:
a free-fall recession.
noun
free fall
noun
- free descent of a body in which the gravitational force is the only force acting on it
- the part of a parachute descent before the parachute opens
Notes
Word History and Origins
Origin of free fall1
Origin of free fall2
Idioms and Phrases
A rapid, uncontrolled decline, as in The markets threatened to go into free fall and we came close to outright panic. This term transfers the aeronautical meaning of a free fall, that is, “a fall through the air without any impedance, such as a parachute,” to other kinds of precipitous drop. [Second half of 1900s]Example Sentences
The U.S. government, then run by the Democratic president Barack Obama, came to the rescue of an economy in free fall.
That pleasure became more difficult to keep hold of this year, as anyone who was paying attention to movie theater etiquette watched it free fall as 2024 dragged on.
So when the Galaxy announced that Chris Klein, who presided over that free fall as the team’s president for a decade, had been given a contract extension, Andrew Alesana had seen enough.
When news a rare American songbird had been spotted in a sleepy West Yorkshire cul-de-sac eager ornithologists converged on the quiet street faster than a falcon in free fall.
Many in eastern Kentucky are living in economic free fall.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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