different between fall vs mischief

English

Etymology 1

Verb from Middle English fallen, from Old English feallan (“to fall, fail, decay, die, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallan (“to fall”), from Proto-Germanic *fallan? (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)p?l-.

Cognate with West Frisian falle (“to fall”), Low German fallen (“to fall”), Dutch vallen (“to fall”), German fallen (“to fall”), Norwegian Bokmål falle (“to fall”), Norwegian Nynorsk falla (“to fall”), Icelandic falla (“to fall”), Albanian fal (“forgive, pray, salute, greet”), Lithuanian pùlti (“to attack, rush”).

Noun from Middle English fal, fall, falle, from Old English feall, ?efeall (“a falling, fall”), from Proto-Germanic *fall?, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)p?l-. Cognate with Dutch val, German Fall, Swedish fall, Icelandic fall.

Sense of "autumn" is by 1660s England as a shortening of Middle English fall of the leaf (1540s), from the falling of leaves during this season. Along with autumn, it mostly replaced the older name harvest as that name began to be associated strictly with the act of harvesting. Compare spring, which began as a shortening of “spring of the leaf”.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fôl, IPA^(key): /f??l/
• (General American) enPR: fôl, IPA^(key): /f?l/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: fäl, IPA^(key): /f?l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Verb

fall (third-person singular simple present falls, present participle falling, simple past fell or (in archaic sense only) felled, past participle fallen or (in archaic sense only) felled)

1. (heading, intransitive) To be moved downwards.
   1. To move to a lower position under the effect of gravity.

      • There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

   2. To come down, to drop or descend.
      • 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, Bulldog Drummond, Ch.1:

        Her eyes fell on the table, and she advanced into the room wiping her hands on her apron.

   3. To come to the ground deliberately, to prostrate oneself.

   4. To be brought to the ground.
2. (transitive) To move downwards.
   1. (obsolete) To let fall; to drop.
   2. (obsolete) To sink; to depress.

   3. (Britain, US, dialect, archaic) To fell; to cut down.

3. (intransitive) To happen, to change negatively.
   1. (copulative, in idiomatic expressions) To become.

      • At length they stood at the corner from which they had begun, and it had fallen quite dark, and they were no wiser.

   3. To occur (on a certain day of the week, date, or similar); said of an instance of a recurring event such as a holiday or date.

   4. (intransitive) To collapse; to be overthrown or defeated.

   5. (intransitive, formal, euphemistic) To die, especially in battle or by disease.

   6. (intransitive) To become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc.).
      • 1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued

        The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished.

      • 1835, Sir John Ross, Sir James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Vol.1, pp.284-5:

        Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
4. (intransitive) To be allotted to; to arrive through chance, fate, or inheritance.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To diminish; to lessen or lower.

   • Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of your native commodities.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To bring forth.
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; said of the young of certain animals.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

8. (intransitive) To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink into vice, error, or sin.

   • Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

9. (intransitive) To become ensnared or entrapped; to be worse off than before.

10. (intransitive) To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear dejected; said of the face.

    • Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

    • I have observed of late thy looks are fallen.

11. (intransitive) To happen; to come to pass; to chance or light (upon).

    • Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.

    • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I Scene 2

      […] An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.

    • 1879, Herbert Spenser, Principles of Sociology Volume II – Part IV: Ceremonial Institutions

      Primitive men […] do not make laws, they fall into customs.

12. (intransitive) To begin with haste, ardour, or vehemence; to rush or hurry.
    • 1881, Benjamin Jowett (Thucydides)

      They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul.

13. (intransitive) To be dropped or uttered carelessly.

14. (intransitive, of a fabric) To hang down (under the influence of gravity).

Quotations

• c. 1591, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of King Richard the third, Andrew Wi?e (publisher, 1598 — second quarto), Act V, Scene 3:

  Ghoa?t [of Clarence]. […] / To morrow in the battaile thinke on me, / And fall thy edgele??e ?word, di?paire and die.

Synonyms

• (move to a lower position under the effect of gravity): drop, plummet, plunge
• (come down): come down, descend, drop
• (come to the ground deliberately): drop, lower oneself, prostrate oneself
• (be brought to the ground):
• (collapse; be overthrown or defeated): be beaten by, be defeated by, be overthrown by, be smitten by, be vanquished by,
• (die): die
• (be allotted to): be the responsibility of, be up to
• (become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc)): dip, drop
• (become): become, get
• (cause (something) to descend to the ground): cut down (of a tree), fell, knock down, knock over, strike down

Antonyms

• (come down): ascend, go up, rise
• (come to the ground deliberately): get up, pick oneself up, stand up
• (collapse; be overthrown or defeated): beat, defeat, overthrow, smite, vanquish
• (become lower (in quantity, pitch, etc)): rise

Coordinate terms

• topple
• tumble

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

fall (countable and uncountable, plural falls)

1. The act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity.
2. A reduction in quantity, pitch, etc.

   • “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

3. (chiefly Canada, US, archaic in Britain) The time of the year when the leaves typically fall from the trees; autumn; the season of the year between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. [from 16th c.]
4. A loss of greatness or status.

5. That which falls or cascades.
6. (sports) A crucial event or circumstance.
   1. (cricket, of a wicket) The action of a batsman being out.
   2. (curling) A defect in the ice which causes stones thrown into an area to drift in a given direction.
   3. (wrestling) An instance of a wrestler being pinned to the mat.
7. A hairpiece for women consisting of long strands of hair on a woven backing, intended primarily to cover hair loss.
8. (informal, US) Blame or punishment for a failure or misdeed.

9. The part of the rope of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting (usu. plural).

10. An old Scots unit of measure equal to six ells.
11. A short, flexible piece of leather forming part of a bullwhip, placed between the thong and the cracker.
12. The lid, on a piano, that covers the keyboard

Synonyms

• (act of moving to a lower position): descent, drop
• (reduction): decrease, dip, drop, lowering, reduction
• (season): autumn, (UK dialect) harvest, (UK dialect) back end
• (loss of greatness or status): downfall
• (blame; punishment): rap

Antonyms

• (act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity): ascent, rise
• (reduction): increase, rise
• (loss of greatness or status): ascent, rise

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• falls

Etymology 2

Perhaps from the north-eastern Scottish pronunciation of whale.

Interjection

fall

1. (nautical) The cry given when a whale is sighted, or harpooned.

Noun

fall (plural falls)

1. (nautical) The chasing of a hunted whale.

Derived terms

• loose fall

Albanian

Etymology

From Turkish fal, from Arabic ?????? (fa?l, “omen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa?/

Noun

fall m (indefinite plural falle, definite singular falli, definite plural fallet)

1. fortune telling

Declension

Derived terms

References

Breton

Adjective

fall

1. bad

Catalan

Etymology

From fallir.

Noun

fall m (plural falls)

1. cliff

Related terms

• falla

Further reading

• “fall” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse fall, from falla (“to fall”). The grammatical sense is a calque of Latin casus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fatl/

Noun

fall n (genitive singular fals, plural føll)

1. fall, drop
2. case (linguistics)

Declension

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fal/
• Rhymes: -al

Verb

fall

1. singular imperative of fallen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of fallen

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse fall, from falla (“to fall”). The grammatical sense is a calque of Latin casus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fatl/
• Rhymes: -atl

Noun

fall n (genitive singular falls, nominative plural föll)

1. fall, drop
2. (grammar) case
3. (computing, programming) function; (subprogram, usually with formal parameters, returning a data value when called)
4. indefinite accusative singular of fall

Declension

Synonyms

• (function): fallstefja

Derived terms

See also

• falla (verb)

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

fall n (definite singular fallet, indefinite plural fall, definite plural falla or fallene)

1. a fall
2. case

   i fall - in case

   i alle fall - in any case

Derived terms

Related terms

• falle (verb)

Verb

fall

1. imperative of falle

References

• “fall” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?l?/

Noun

fall n (definite singular fallet, indefinite plural fall, definite plural falla)

1. a fall
2. case

Derived terms

Verb

fall

1. past tense of falle
2. imperative of falle

References

• “fall” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse fall, from falla (“to fall”). The grammatical sense is a calque of Latin casus.

Pronunciation

Noun

fall n

1. a fall (the act of falling)
2. a fall, loss of greatness or wealth, a bankruptcy
3. a slope, a waterfall, the height of a slope or waterfall

4. a (legal) case

Declension

Related terms

Verb

fall

1. imperative of falla.

References

• fall in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

English

Etymology

From Middle English myschef, meschef, meschief, mischef, from Old French meschief, from meschever (“to bring to grief”), from mes- (“badly”) + chever (“happen; come to a head”), from Vulgar Latin *capare, from Latin caput (“head”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?st??f/, /?m??t??f/
• Rhymes: -?st??f

Noun

mischief (countable and uncountable, plural mischiefs)

1. (uncountable) Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

   Synonyms: delinquency, naughtiness, roguery, scampishness; see also Thesaurus:villainy, Thesaurus:mischief

2. (countable) A playfully annoying action.

3. (collective) A group or a pack of rats.
   • 2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse ?ISBN, page 21

     Kirac, the leader of the rats under his charge, speaks to the major through his telepathic abilities that manifested after the alien virus infected him and his mischief of rats.

   • 2015, Rachel Smith, John Davidson, Rats For Kids, Mendon Cottage Books ?ISBN, page 6

     A group of rats is not a herd or a gaggle, but a pack or a mischief of rats. Rats in general are omnivorous, meaning they will eat almost anything.

4. (archaic) Harm or injury:
   1. (uncountable) Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.
      • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 8:

        Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
   2. (countable) An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

5. (law) A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
6. (archaic, countable) A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.

   Synonyms: bad boy, knave, rapscallion, rascal, rogue; see also Thesaurus:villain, Thesaurus:troublemaker
7. (euphemistic) The Devil; used as an expletive.
   • 1967, The Statesman (volume 12, page 260)

     What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?

8. (Australia) Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

Synonyms

• (harm or injury): agitation, annoyance, corruption, damage, demolition, destruction, detriment, disablement, disruption, evil, harm, hurt, ill, impairment, incapacitation, injury, nuisance, pique, ravage, sabotage, scathe, trouble, undoing, unmaking, vexation, weakening, wrong

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mischief at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Mischief in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle English

Noun

mischief

1. Alternative form of myschef