Word.ws English Dictionary

take a fall

take a fall is the alternative form of take the fall.

Meaning of take the fall

Verb

take the fall (third-person singular simple present takes the fall, present participle taking the fall, simple past took the fall, past participle taken the fall)

  1. (especially, idiomatic, informal) To willingly lose a match, as in a fixed fight.
  2. (idiomatic, informal) To bear the blame or punishment for another person's failure or misdeed, either intentionally or not.
    • It was good of him to take the fall for you like that, I just wonder if he will come out of this one unscathed.
    Synonyms:
    take the rap

Forms of take a fall

third-person singular presenttakes a fall
present participletaking a fall
pasttook a fall
past participletaken a fall

Questions about take a fall

What is take a fall the alternative form of?
Take a fall is the alternative form of take the fall.

Words near take a fall in the dictionary

  1. take a dip
  2. take a dirt nap
  3. take a dive
  4. take a dookie
  5. take a dump
  6. take a fall
  7. take a fall out of
  8. take a fancy to
  9. take a five
  10. take a flier
  11. take a flutter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a fall (page history and authors); take the 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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Cite this entry: “take a fall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_a_fall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.