Word.ws English Dictionary

takes the fall

takes the fall is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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

Questions about takes the fall

What is takes the fall the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Takes the fall is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take the fall.

Words near takes the fall in the dictionary

  1. takes the count
  2. takes the coward's way out
  3. takes the cure
  4. takes the easy way out
  5. takes the edge off
  6. takes the fall
  7. takes the fifth
  8. takes the front seat
  9. takes the game to
  10. takes the gap
  11. takes the gilt off the gingerbread

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes the 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: “takes the fall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/takes_the_fall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.