Fell Meaning
/fɛl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
verbTo strike down, kill, destroy.
Sentence Examples
Your glasses fell on the floor.
The robbers fell upon him from behind the trees.
Her breathing became steady and she fell asleep.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old tree ____ during the violent storm last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The temperature ____ sharply overnight, and by morning, the ground was covered in a thick layer of frost.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fiellan (“to cause to fall, strike down, fell, cut down, throw down, defeat, destroy, kill, tumble, cause to stumble”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallijan, from Proto-Germanic *fallijaną (“to fell, to cause to fall”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂peh₃lH-. Cognate with Dutch vellen (“to fell, cut down”), German fällen (“to fell”), Danish fælde (“to fell”), Norwegian felle (“to fell”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Stand, or I'll fell thee down."
— 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
"Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge."
— 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales:
"As southeast Asia's forests were felled, the rhino's habitat shrank and became fragmented."
— 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 219:
"Gahan, horrified, saw the latter's head topple from its body, saw the body stagger and fall to the ground. ... The creature that had felled its companion was dashing madly in the direction of the hill upon which he was hidden, it dodged one of the workers that sought to seize it. … Then it was that Gahan's eyes chanced to return to the figure of the creature the fugitive had felled."
— 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:
""Even in his most temperate moments he is constantly felling people with a hunting-crop.""
— 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 19:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old tree ____ during the violent storm last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The temperature ____ sharply overnight, and by morning, the ground was covered in a thick layer of frost.