fallaway

1 of 2

adjective

fall·​away ˈfȯl-ə-ˌwā How to pronounce fallaway (audio)
: made while moving away from the basket in basketball
a fallaway jump shot
fallaway noun

fall away

2 of 2

verb

fell away; fallen away; falling away; falls away

intransitive verb

1
a
: to withdraw friendship or support
b
: to renounce one's faith
2
a
: to diminish gradually in size
b
: to drift off a course

Examples of fallaway in a Sentence

Verb as the years went by, the public's interest in the murder case fell away
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
His fallaway, one-legged jumper at 6-11 is impossible to defend. Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 May 2023 And from the driver's seat, the thing looks racy, sporting a short, fallaway hood and sweeping lines (accentuated in the CRX by the roof tapering down behind your head to an impertinent little ducktail). Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, 4 Mar. 2023 In the teams’ first meeting this season, Mahaney nailed a fallaway jumper with less than a second remaining to give the Gaels a 57-56 thriller in Provo. Steve Kroner, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Feb. 2023 Chamberlain scored on fallaway jump shots, finger-rolls, and dunks. Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Mar. 2022 James and Davis made 3-pointers and fallaway jumpers. Bernie Wilson, ajc, 20 Oct. 2021
Verb
Look closely, though, and all of that falls away, as these two actors clearly understand. Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 13 May 2024 Like Musk, Proximus Caesar is also a disruptor in the electricity space — in an era when electrical power has fallen away with human society, Durand’s character rediscovers it and uses it to assert dominance over his fellow apes. Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 9 May 2024 Soon American colleges had entered in a new era in which a paternalistic model of administration, which often governed not only student speech but dress and dating, began to fall away. Richard Fausset, New York Times, 4 May 2024 But sneaking throughout the sedimentary layers like a nest of snakes are the slippery bands that are responsible for a good bit of what’s falling away: volcanic ash. Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2024 Everything outside the moment falls away, like a blurred background in an Impressionist landscape. Krista Stevens, Longreads, 17 Apr. 2024 In recent years, most of the restraints on Iran’s nuclear program have fallen away. Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024 Our world of divisions and distractions — of TikTok and politics and disasters — fell away, leaving us quiet with our breath held in awe. Christopher Maag, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024 The Hartford club’s nativist roots were falling away, hinting at the movement’s adaptability. Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fallaway.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1936, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1535, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of fallaway was in 1535

Dictionary Entries Near fallaway

Cite this Entry

“Fallaway.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fallaway. Accessed 17 May. 2024.

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