fall back on

Verb

fall back on (third-person singular simple present falls back on, present participle falling back on, simple past fell back on, past participle fallen back on)

1. (transitive) To turn to as a substitute; to rely on as a backup.
   • Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its...2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club
   • So I fell back on the simple methods of the plainsman and Indian and jogged along on their trail.1907, Bertrand W Sinclair, Raw Gold
2. (transitive) to be blamed on.
   • If we do this, the consequences will fall back on you.