5. Ruin; dissolution.

2 Esdras.

Paul's, the late theme of such a muse, whose flight

Has bravely reach'd and soar'd above thy height; Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire,

Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire. Denbam.

Downfal; loss of greatness; declension from eminence; degradation; state of being deposed from a high station; plunge from happiness or greatness into misery or meanness, or from virtue to corruption. In a sense like this we ay the fall of man, and the fall of angels,

Her memory served as an accuser of her change, and her own handwriting was there to bear testimony against her fall. Sidney. Perhaps thou talk'st of me, and do'st enquire O my restraint: why here I live alone; And pittiest this my miserable fall. Daniel. He, careless now of int'rest, fame, or fate, Perhaps forgets that Oxford e'er was great; Or deeming meanest what we greatest call, Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. Pope. 7. Declension of greatness, power, or dominion.

trees.

What crouds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how last fall he rais'd the weekly bills. Dryden 14. Any thing that comes down in great quantities.

Upon a great fall of rain the current carried away a huge heap of apples. L'Estrange. 15. The act of felling or cutting down: as, the fall of timber. FALLA'CIOUS. adj. [fallax, Latin; fallacieux, French.]

1. Producing mistake; sophistical. It is never used of men, but of writings, propositions, or things.

London.

Child.

9. Declination or diminution of sound; cadence; close of musick.

That strain again; it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet South That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odours.

Shaksp

How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, At ev'ry fall smoothing the raven down

Of darkness 'till it smil'd!

10. Declivity; steep descent.

Milton.

Waters when beat upon the shore, or straitened, is the falls of bridges, or dashed against themselves by winds, give a roaring noise. Bacon.

11. Cataract; cascade; rush of water down a steep place.

There will we ait upon the rocks,
And see the shepherd's feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Shaksp

The Jews believed and assented to things neither evident nor certain, nor yet so much as probable, but actually false and fallacious; such as the absurd doctrines and stories of their rabbies. South.

Deceitful; mocking expectation. The force of that fallacious fruit, That with exhilarating vapour bland About their spirits had play'd, and inmost pow'rs

Made err, was now exhal'd.

Milton.

Milton

False philosophy inspires Fallacious hope. FALLACIOUSLY. adv. [from fallacious.} Sophistically; with purpose to deceive; with unsound reasoning.

We shall so far encourage contradiction, as to promise not to oppose any pen that shall fallaBrown. ciously refute us,

We have seen how fallaciously the author has stated the cause, by supposing that nothing but unlimited mercy, or unlimited punishment, are the methods that can be made use of. Addison. FALLACIOUSNESS. n. s. [from falla. cious.] Tendency to deceive; inconclusiveness.

FALLACY. n. s. [fallacia, Latin; fab lace, French.] Sophism; logical arti fice; deceit; deceitful argument; delusory mode of ratiocination.

Most princes make themselves another thing from the people by a fallacy of argument, thinking themselves most kings when the subjects most basely subjected.

Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

Sidney,

Shaksp

It were a mere fallacy, and mistaking to a cribe that to the force of imagination upon ano ther body, which is but the force of imagination upon the proper body.

Bacon.

All men, who can see an inch before them, may easily detect gross fallacies. Dryden. FALLIBILITY. n. s. [from fallible.] Liableness to be deceived; uncertainty ; possibility of errour.

There is a great deal of fallibility in the testimony of men; yet some things we may be almost as certain of, as that the sun shines, or that five twenties make an hundred. Watts.

FALLIBLE. adj. [fallo, Latin.] Liable to errour; such as may be de

ceived.

Do not falsify your resolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die. Shaksp. He that creates to himself thousands of little hopes, uncertain in the promise, fallible in the event, and depending upon a thousand circumstances, often fails in his expectations. Taylor. Our intellectual or rational powers need some assistance, because they are so frail and fallible in the present state. Watts. FALLING. FALLING IN. minence.

In

n. s. [from fall.] denting opposed to pro

It shows the nose and eyebrows, with the several prominences and fallings in of the features, much more distinctly than any other kind of figure. Addison on Medals. FALLINGSICKNESS. n. s. [fall and sickness.] The epilepsy; a disease in which the patient is without any warning deprived at once of his senses, and falls down.

Did Cæsar swoon ?-He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at mouth, and was speechBess-He hath the falling-sickness. Shaksp. The dogfisher is good against the falling-sickWallon

FA'LLOW. adj. [ralepe, Saxon] 1. Pale red, or pale yellow.

How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say, he was out-run at Cotsale. Shaksp. The king, who was excessively affected to hunting, had a great desire to make a great park for red as well as fal or deer between Richmond and Hampton-court. Clarendon. 2. Unsowed; left to rest after the years of tillage. [supposed to be so called from the colour of naked ground.]

The ridges of the fallow field lay traversed, so as the English must cross them in presenting the charge. Hayward. Plowed, but not sowed; plowed as prepared for a second aration."

Her predecessors, in their course of government, did but sometimes cast up the ground; and so leaving it faller, it became quickly overgrown with weeds. Horvel's Vocal Forest. 4. Unplowed; uncultivated. Her fallow lees

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
Doth root upon.
Shaksp. Henry v.

3. Unoccupied; neglected.

Shall saints in civil bloodshed wallow Of saints, and let the cause lie fallow? Hudib. FA'LLOW. n. [from the adjective.] 1. Ground plowed in order to be plowed again.

The plowing of falls is a benefit to land. Mortimer. The best plows to plow up summer fallow with. Mortimer.

. Ground lying at rest..

Within an ancient forest's ample verge,

There stands a lonely but a healthful dwelling, Built for convenience, and the use of life; Around it fallows, meads, and pastures fair, A little garden, and a limpid brook, By nature's own contrivance seems dispos'd. Rowe's Jane Shore. To FALLOW. v. n. To plow in order to a second plowing.

Begin to plow up fallows: this first fallowing ought to be very shallow. Mortimer. FALLOWNESS. .. [from fallow.] Barrenness; an exemption from bearing fruit.

Like one, who, in her third widowhood, doth
profess

Herself a nun, ty'd to retiredness,
S'affects my muse now a chaste fallowness.

away,

With dreadful poise is from the main land reft. Fairy Queen When that flood in its own depths was drown'd, It left behind it false and slipp'ry ground. Dryden

The heart of man looks fair, but when we come to lay any weight upon 't, the ground is false under us. L'Estrange 5. Not agreeable to rule, or propriety.

Now, fy upon my false, French; by mine ho mour, in true English, I love thee, Kate. Shaksp. 6. Not honest; not just.

countenance.

The true prince may, for recreation, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the times want Shaky Men are spunges, which, to pour out, receive; Who know false play, rather than lose, deceive. 7. Treacherous; perfidious; traiterous; deceitful; hollow.

I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of ev'ry sin That has a name.

Donne

Shaksp

False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand.

A man to whom he had committed the trust of his person, in making him his chamberlain;

this man, no ways disgraced, no ways discontent, no ways put in fear, turns false unto him. Bacon. So hast thou cheated Theseus with a wile, Against thy vow, returning to beguile Under a borrow'd name; as false to me, Bo false thou art to him who set thee free.

Dryden. The ladies will make a numerous party against him, for being false to love in forsaking Dido. Dryden's Virgil. 8. Counterfeit; hypocritical; not real: as, a false diamond.

False tears true pity moves: the king commands Dryden's Æneid.

To loose his fetters.

9. In all these senses true is the word opposed.

FALSE. adv. Not truely; not honestly; not exactly; falsely.

What thou would'st highly,

That thou would'st holily; would'st not play false,

Shaksp.

And yet would'st wrongly win. TFALSE. v. a. [from the noun ] This word is now out of use.

1. To violate by failure of veracity.

Is't not enough that to this lady mild, Thou falsed hast thy faith with perjury?

2. To deceive.

Fairy Queen.

In your answers there remains falshood.

4. Counterfeit; imposture.

For no falsbood can endure

Touch of celestial temper, but returns Of force to its own likeness. FALSELY, adv. [from false.)

Simeon and Levi spake not only falsely but insidiously, nay hypocritically, abusing proselytes and religion. Government of the Tongue. Already were the Belgians on our coast, Whose fleet mere mighty every day became By late success, which they did falsely boast, And now by first appearing seem'd to claim. Dryden's Annu. Mir.

Tell him, I did in vain his brother move, And yet he falsely said he was in love; Falsely; for had he truly lov'd, at least He would have giv'n one day to my request. Dryden's Aurengzebe. Such as are treated ill, and upbraided falsely, find out an intimate friend that will hear their complaints, and endeavour to sooth their secret Addison's Spectator.

resentments.

2. Erroneously; by mistake.

He knows that to be inconvenient which we Smalridge. falsely think convenient for us. 3. Perfidiously; treacherously; deceitfully.

FALSENESS. n. s. [from false.] 1. Contrariety to truth.

2. Want of veracity; violation of pro

mise.

Suppose the reverse of virtue were solemnly enacted, and the practice of fraud and rapine, and perjury and falseness to a man's word, and all vice were established by a law, would that which we now call vice gain the reputation of virtue, and that which we now call virtue grow odious to human nature? Tillotson. 3. Duplicity; deceit; double dealing. Piety is opposed to hypocrisy and insincerity, and all falseness or foulness of intentions, especi Hammond. ally to personated devotion.

4. Treachery; perfidy; traitorousness.

King Richard might create a perfect guess, That great Northumberland, then false to him, Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness. Shaksp. Henry IV. The prince is in no danger of being betrayed by the falseness, or cheated by the avarice of Rogers. FALSER. . . [from false.] A deceiver; a hypocrite. Obsolete.

such a servant.

Such end had the kid; for he would weaned be Of craft coloured with simplicity;

And such end, pardie, does all them remain,
That of such falser's friendship been fain.

Spenser's Past. FALSIFIABLE. adj. [from falsify.] Liable to be counterfeited or corrupted. FALSIFICATION. n. s. falification, French; from falsify.].

1. The act of counterfeiting any thing so as to make it appear what it is not.

Concerning the word of God, whether it be by misconstruction of the sense, or by falsifica tien of the words, wittingly to endeavour that any thing may seem divine which is not, is very plainly to abuse, and even to falsify divine evidence, which injury, offered but unto men, is Hooker. most worthily counted heinous.

To counterfeit the dead image of a king in his coin is an high offence; but to counterfeit the living image of a king in his person, exceedeth all falsifications; except it should be that of a Mahomet, that counterfeits divine Bacon. honour. 2. Confutation.

The poet invents this fiction to prevent poste rity from searching after this isle, and to preserve his story from detection of falsification. "Broome,

never seen copied, except once by some obscura nameless writer, and which indeed deserves not to be received.

To FALSIFY... To tell lies; to violate truth.

This point have we gained, that it is abso lutely and universally unlawful to lie and falsify. Soath. FALSITY. n. s. [falsitas, Latin.] Falsehood; contrariety to truth.

Hooker.

The Irish bards use to forge and falsify every thing as they list, to please or displease any man. Spenser on Ireland.

Falifying the balance by deceit. a. To confute; to prove false.

Amos.

Our Saviour's prophecy stands good in the destruction of the temple, and the dissolution of the Jewish economy, when Jews and Pagans united all their endeavours, under Julian the apostate, to baffle and falsify the prediction.

Addison.

3. To violate; to break by falsehood.

It shall be thy work, thy shameful work, which is in thy power to shun, to make him live to see thy faith falsified, and his bed defiled. Sidney.

He suddenly falsified his faith, and villainously slew Selymes the king, as he was bathing himself, mistrusting nothing less than the falsehood of the pirate. Knolles' History.

This superadds treachery to all the other pestilent ingredients of the crime; 'tis the falsifying the most important trust. Decay of Picty. 4. To pierce; to run through.

His crest is rash'd away, his ample shield Is falsify'd, and round with jav'lins fill'd.

Dryden.

Of this word Mr. Dryden writes thus: "My friends quarrelled at the word falsified, as an innovation in our language. The fact is confessed;

for I remember not to have read it in any English author; though perhaps it may be found in Spenser's Fairy Queen. But suppose it be not there: why am I forbidden to borrow from the Italian, a polished language, the word which is wanting in my native tongue? Horace has given us a rule for coining words, si græco fonte cadant, espeeially when other words are joined with them which explain the sense. I used the word falsify, in this place, to mean that the shield of Turnus was not of proof against the spears and javelins of the Trojans, which had pierced it through and through in many places. The words which accompany this new one, makes my meaning plain:

Ma si l'Usbergo d'Ambi era perfetto, Che mai poter falsarlo in nessum canto. Ariosto, cant. xxvi. Falsar cannot otherwise be turned than by falsi fred: for his shield was falsed, is not English. I might indeed have contented myself with saying his shield was pierced, and bored, and stuck with javelins.

Dryden. Dryden, with all this effort, was not able to naturalize the new signification, which I have

Neither are they able to break through these errours, wherein they are so determinately settled, that they pay unto falsity the whole sum of whatsoever love is owing unto God's truth.

Hooker.

Can you on him such falsities obtrude? And as a mortal the most wise delude? Sandys. Probability does not make any alteration, ether in the truth or falsity of things; but only imports a different degree of their clearness or appearance to the understanding. South

2. A lie; an errour; a false assertion or position.

That Danubius ariseth from the Pyrenean hills, that the earth is higher towards the north, are opinions truly charged on Aristotle by the restorer of Epicurus, and all easily confutable falsities. Glanville's Stepsis.

To FALTER. v. n. [faltar, to be wanting, Spanish; vaultur, a stammere?, Islandick, which is probably a word from the same radical.]

1. To hesitate in the utterance of words. With faltering tongue, and trembling ev'ry vein, Tell on, quoth she.

Fairy Queen. The pale assistants on each other star'd, With gaping mouths for issuing words prepar'd; The still-born sounds upon the palate hung, And dy'd imperfect on the falt'ring tongue.

Dryden.

To FAMBLE. V. n. [famler, Danish.]
To hesitate in the speech. This word
I find only in Skinner.
FAME. n. 5. [fama, Latin; Çáμx.]
1. Celebrity; renown.

The house to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. Chronicles