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Definition of "downfall" []

  • A sudden loss of wealth, rank, reputation, or happiness; ruin. (noun)
  • A cause of sudden ruin. (noun)
  • A fall of rain or snow, especially a heavy or unexpected one. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "downfall" in a sentence
  • "Yes, in fact his downfall is about halfway through I'd say."
  • "Earth Abides, check, the downfall is a bit of a mystery."
  • "In the eighteen enormous folio volumes, which he filled with his minute and gothic characters, he gives his own version of the story of what he terms his downfall, and, having, notwithstanding his prolixity, exhausted this subject in the first five of the eighteen tomes, he proceeds to deal with so much of the history of his own day as came immediately under his notice in his Cornish retirement."