Definition of "free fall" []

• The fall of a body within the atmosphere without a drag-producing device such as a parachute. (noun)
• The ideal falling motion of a body that is subject only to the earth's gravitational field. (noun)
• Rapid uncontrolled decline: "The markets threatened to go into free fall and we came within an eyelash of ... an uncontrollable panic” ( Felix Rohatyn). (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.

• "He hadn't switched on his exo-skeleton power and he drifted easily across in free fall to grasp a stanchion anchoring the box to the floor of the carrier deck."
• "The standby ship was gone, but according to radio broadcasts we intercepted, Tyler Locke used one of the free fall lifeboats to save them."
• "After a swift, stomach-churning free fall she landed on her butt in a green, piss-warm stream."