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Webster 1913 Edition

Befall

Be-fall′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp.
Befell
;
p. p.
Befallen
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Befalling
.]
[AS.
befeallan
; pref.
be-
+
feallan
to fall.]
To happen to.
I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may
befall
me.
Shakespeare

Be-fall′

,
Verb.
I.
To come to pass; to happen.
I have revealed . . . the discord which
befell
.
Milton.

Webster 1828 Edition

Befall

BEFALL'

,
Verb.
T.
pret. befell; part. befallen.
To happen to; to occur to; as, let me know the worst that can befall me. It usually denotes ill. It is generally transitive in form, but there seems to be an ellipsis of to,and to sometimes follows it.

BEFALL'

,
Verb.
I.
To happen; to come to pass.
To befall of is not legitimate.

Definition 2024

Befall

Befall

See also: befall

German

Noun

Befall m ‎(genitive Befalls or Befalles, plural Befälle)

  1. infestation

Declension

Related terms

befall

befall

See also: Befall

English

Verb

befall ‎(third-person singular simple present befalls, present participle befalling, simple past befell, past participle befallen)

  1. (transitive) To fall upon; fall all over; overtake
    At dusk an unusual calm befalls the wetlands.
  2. (intransitive) To happen.
  3. (transitive) To happen to.
    Temptation befell me.
    • Shakespeare
      I beseech your grace that I may know / The worst that may befall me.
    • 2013 April 15, Walter Russell Mead, “The Wreck of the Euro”, in The American Interest, retrieved 2013-04-16:
      As we’ve said before, with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s.

Translations

Derived terms

Noun

befall ‎(plural befalls)

  1. Case; instance; circumstance; event; incident; accident.
    • 1495, William Caxton, Vitas Patrum:
      Or he had tolde al his befall.
    • 1990, India. Parliament. House of the People, India. Parliament. Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha debates:
      This is proposed to be done by moving necessary amendment in this befall to the Finance Bill.
    • 1994, Socialist Party (India), Janata: Volume 49:
      He said "I would advise people to cultivate frugal habits. I will not commit the crime of making them helpless by saying that they have no responsibility whatever in the befall of calamities like old age, illness, accident, etc. [...]"
    • 1996, Thomas Pfau, Rhonda Ray Kercsmar, Rhetorical and cultural dissolution in romanticism:
      [...], the word "care" asserting itself subliminally in somewhat the same way that "fall" does in the "befall" of "Infant Joy."

References

  • befall in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • befall in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bəˈfal/
  • Hyphenation: be‧fall
  • Rhymes: -al

Verb

befall

  1. Imperative singular of befallen.

Swedish

Verb

befall

  1. imperative of befalla.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bəˈfal/
  • Rhymes: -al

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