fall back on

present singular third person falls back on · participle present falling back on · past fell back on · participle past fallen back on

1. transitiveTo turn to as a substitute; to rely on as a backup.

   So I fell back on the simple methods of the plainsman and Indian and jogged along on their trail.

   1907, Bertrand W Sinclair, Raw Gold

   1 more example

   Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.

   2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2012

2. transitiveto be blamed on.

   If we do this, the consequences will fall back on you.