Word.ws English Dictionary

fall by the wayside

Syllables: fall by the way·sideUK/ˈfɔːl baɪ ðə ˈweɪsaɪd/US/ˈfɔl baɪ ðə ˈweɪˌsaɪd/

fall by the wayside verb: to fail to be completed, particularly for lack of interest; to be left out, to suffer from neglect.

Verb

fall by the wayside (third-person singular simple present falls by the wayside, present participle falling by the wayside, simple past fell by the wayside, past participle fallen by the wayside)

  1. (idiomatic) To fail to be completed, particularly for lack of interest; to be left out, to suffer from neglect.
    • When I faint and fall by the wayside of my cares, it [a "cup of favor"] shall give me strength to bear up, as the refreshments of your sympathy seem to flow from its lip, and when I thirst, it shall be as one of the consecrated fountains of my relief.1843 April 23, J[ohn] T. Sargent, A Cup of Blessing, or The Pastor’s Acknowledgment to His People in Return for Their Full Chalice, Boston, Mass.: Printed by Samuel N. Dickinson, →OCLC, page 10
    • The information given is so copious that the facts—archæological, ethnological, and so on—might, we think, have been grouped with advantage, at any rate to students, in special chapters, instead of being allowed to fall by the wayside as chance ordered.1877 January, “Art. II.—1. ‘The Frosty Caucasus;’ an Account of a Walk through Part of the Range and of an Ascent of Elbruz in the Summer of 1874. By F. C. Grove. London: 1875. 2. Travels in the...

Forms of fall by the wayside

third-person singular presentfalls by the wayside
present participlefalling by the wayside
pastfell by the wayside
past participlefallen by the wayside

Origin of fall by the wayside

From the Parable of the Sower told by Jesus and recorded in the New Testament of the Bible, the term appearing in Matthew 13:4, Mark 4:4, and Luke 8:5. The parable is the story of a farmer who sows seed, and “some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it” (Luke 8:5). Jesus then explains: “The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside, are they that hear: then cometh the Devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe, and be saved.” (Luke 8:11–12, King James Version, spelling modernized.) The English term is derived from Ancient Greek ἔπεσεν παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν (épesen parà tḕn hodón, literally “fell beside the path”).

Questions about fall by the wayside

What does fall by the wayside mean?
Fall by the wayside means to fail to be completed, particularly for lack of interest; to be left out, to suffer from neglect.
What part of speech is fall by the wayside?
Fall by the wayside is a verb.
How do you pronounce fall by the wayside?
Fall by the wayside is pronounced /ˈfɔːl baɪ ðə ˈweɪsaɪd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of fall by the wayside?
The past tense of fall by the wayside is fell by the wayside.

Words near fall by the wayside in the dictionary

  1. fall below
  2. fall between the cracks
  3. fall between two stools
  4. fall break
  5. fall by
  6. fall by the wayside
  7. fall classic
  8. fall classics
  9. Fall Creek
  10. fall dandelion
  11. fall dandelions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fall by the wayside (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-fall by the wayside.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fall by the wayside.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fall_by_the_wayside. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.