fall behind

phrase

1

: to lag behind

The slower hikers fell behind the group.

2

: to be in arrears

He fell behind in his car payments.

Examples of fall behind in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Tigers started drives by trying to get QB Austin Simmons going, but often fell behind the sticks with minimal gains or no gains on first and second down. — Pj Green september 27, Kansas City Star, 27 Sep. 2026

On Sunday, the Rangers fell behind 3-1 in the third inning, and Minnesota extended that to 5-1 in the fifth inning. — Jim Barnes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Sep. 2026

Mateer lost two fumbles, each recovered by Cole, and and had a pass instercepted as Oklahoma, which finished with four turnovers, fell behind 28-0. — Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2026

In the race to bring AI to the enterprise, Microsoft has been criticized for falling behind Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT, so Friday's exuberant market reaction is notable. — Matthew J. Belvedere,kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1652, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for fall behind

• countersigned
• disinclined
• humankind
• interlined
• intertwined
• mastermind
• misaligned
• nonaligned
• predefined
• realigned
• reassigned
• recombined