fall out

plural fall outs

1. Synonym of falling out (“rift following a disagreement or quarrel”).

   We had a fall out, couldn't come to terms and haven't talked since.

   1 more example

   I've had a fall out with Nora, one of my tenants. She's packing up and leaving at this very moment.

   2019, Angela Barton, Magnolia House

   Synonyms: falling out

present singular third person falls out · participle present falling out · past fell out · participle past fallen out

1. literallyTo come out of something by falling.

   I opened the cupboard and a can fell out onto my foot.

   1 more example

   Part of No. 10 platform at Kings Cross was cordoned off on August 23 after a container of radio-active material had fallen from a trolley. The special box in which it was packed split open, allowing the container to fall out.

   1956 October, “Notes and News: Radioactivity at Kings Cross”, in Railway Magazine, page 711

2. idiomaticintransitiveTo cease to be on friendly terms.

   Dave and I fell out after a long argument.

   2 more examples

   Petronius calleth this paſſion [i.e., jealousy] amantium furioſam æmulationem, a furious emulation, and their ſymptomes are well expreſſed by Sʳ Ieffrey Chaucer in his firſt Canterbury tale. It will make the neareſt & deareſt friends fall out; they will endure al other things to be common, goods, lands, moneyes, participate of all other pleaſures, and take in good part any diſgraces, iniuries in another kind, but as Propertius well deſcribes it in an Elegie of his, in this they will ſuffer nothing, have no corriuals.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Iealousie, His Equivocations, Name, Definition, Extent, Seuerall Kindes, of Princes, Parents, Friends. In Beasts, Men, before Marriage, as Corriuals, or after, as in this Place”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 1, subsection 1, pages 465–466

   Before the incident Robins had fallen out with Knutton, 30. Knutton had made a complaint over Robins' boyfriend.

   2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian

3. intransitiveliterallygovernmentTo leave one's place in the current formation of ranks in order to take one's place in a new formation.
4. figurativelyintransitivegovernmentTo leave one's current location to report for duty at a new location.

   The company fell out for an artillery drill.

5. dialectalintransitiveTo pass out.
6. datedTo turn out, happen.

   I expected to be in the States long before this, but things fell out otherwise.

   1866, Mark Twain, in a letter to William Bowen, 7 May 1866

   2 more examples

   Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 1:10

   For days Ailie had an absent eye and a sad face, and it so fell out that in all that time young Heriotside, who had scarce missed a day, was laid up with a broken arm and never came near her.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

7. intransitiveobsoletemediaTo fall off due to the quoins holding it in place having become wet and therefore loose.
8. intransitiveOf a trapdoor or similarTo give way under someone.

   The board he was walking on fell out.

   Synonyms: drop out

9. figurativelyintransitiveusuallyOf the ground; floor; snow; a worldview or foundation; Of the ground; floor; snow; a worldview or foundationTo cause someone to slip and/or fall down.

   The ground fell out from under him.

   1 more example

   When she left him, his world fell out beneath him.

   Synonyms: drop out

10. intransitiveslangTo be enthusiastic about something; to laugh very hard.

    When the band started, everybody fell out.

11. intransitiveslangTo depart.
12. intransitiveslangAfrican-American VernacularTo collapse; to pass out from intoxication.
13. intransitiveslangAfrican-American VernacularTo be shocked by something.