FALL BEHIND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fall behind mean? 

• FALL BEHIND (verb)
  The verb FALL BEHIND has 2 senses:

1. retreat

2. hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.

  Familiarity information: FALL BEHIND used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FALL BEHIND (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Retreat

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

drop off; fall back; fall behind; recede

Hypernyms (to "fall behind" is one way to...):

regress; retrograde; retrogress (get worse or fall back to a previous condition)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

dawdle; fall back; fall behind; lag

Hypernyms (to "fall behind" is one way to...):

follow (to travel behind, go after, come after)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fall behind"):

drag; drop back; drop behind; get behind; hang back; trail (to lag or linger behind)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

In its yearly trek around the sun, asteroid 2016 HO3 spends about half of the time closer to the sun than Earth and passes ahead of our planet, and about half of the time farther away, causing it to fall behind.

(Small Asteroid Is Earth's Constant Companion, NASA)

From the instant that we passed the rise, we could no longer see the vehicle, but we hastened onward at such a pace that my sedentary life began to tell upon me, and I was compelled to fall behind.

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

They now walked on together quietly, till within view of the vicarage pales, when a sudden resolution, of at least getting Harriet into the house, made her again find something very much amiss about her boot, and fall behind to arrange it once more.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)