fall over oneself
fall over oneself verb: to be unusually enthusiastic.
Verb
fall over oneself (third-person singular simple present falls over oneself, present participle falling over oneself, simple past fell over oneself, past participle fallen over oneself)
- To be unusually enthusiastic.
- Catholic families in the town were falling over themselves in their anxiety to invite the young Franciscans to come and sit in their parlors and be made much of, with cookies and soft drinks.1948, Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain, published 1999, →ISBN, page 317
- As long as we don't fall over ourselves to congratulate our adolescent every time she wipes her feet on the mat, a well-placed and consistent "thank you," a compliment, or a sign of appreciation can go a long way.2004, David Walsh, Why Do They Act That Way?, Free Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 250
Forms of fall over oneself
| third-person singular present | falls over oneself |
|---|---|
| present participle | falling over oneself |
| past | fell over oneself |
| past participle | fallen over oneself |
Questions about fall over oneself
- What does fall over oneself mean?
- Fall over oneself means to be unusually enthusiastic.
- What part of speech is fall over oneself?
- Fall over oneself is a verb.
- What is the past tense of fall over oneself?
- The past tense of fall over oneself is fell over oneself.
Words near fall over oneself in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fall over oneself (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-fall over oneself.oga.
Cite this entry: “fall over oneself.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fall_over_oneself. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.