Word.ws English Dictionary

break one's fall

break one's fall verb: to provide alleviation to prevent someone from slamming into the ground at full speed; to prevent someone from hitting the ground too hard at the end of a fall.

Verb

break one's fall (third-person singular simple present breaks one's fall, present participle breaking one's fall, simple past broke one's fall, past participle broken one's fall)

  1. To provide alleviation to prevent someone from slamming into the ground at full speed; to prevent someone from hitting the ground too hard at the end of a fall.
    • A pile of leaves broke my fall when I slipped off the roof of the shed.

Forms of break one's fall

third-person singular presentbreaks one's fall
present participlebreaking one's fall
pastbroke one's fall
past participlebroken one's fall

Questions about break one's fall

What does break one's fall mean?
Break one's fall means to provide alleviation to prevent someone from slamming into the ground at full speed; to prevent someone from hitting the ground too hard at the end of a fall.
What part of speech is break one's fall?
Break one's fall is a verb.
What is the past tense of break one's fall?
The past tense of break one's fall is broke one's fall.

Words near break one's fall in the dictionary

  1. break one's ass
  2. break one's back
  3. break one's balls
  4. break one's chops
  5. break one's duck
  6. break one's fall
  7. break one's fast
  8. break one's lance
  9. break one's maiden
  10. break one's neck
  11. break one's promise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break one's fall (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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