downfall

Use Downfall in a sentence

noun

descent to a lower position or standing; overthrow; ruin.

something causing ruin, failure, etc.: Liquor was his downfall.

a fall, as of rain, snow, or the like, often sudden or heavy.

a trap using a falling weight for killing, injuring, or imprisoning the prey.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English; see down¹, fall

Related forms

down·fall·en, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To Downfall

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Downfall is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

downfall (ˈdaʊnˌfɔːl)

—n
1.	a sudden loss of position, health, or reputation
2.	a fall of rain, snow, etc, esp a sudden heavy one
3.	another word for deadfall

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

downfall

ruin, c.1300, from down (adv.) + fall.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences

There is a bigger story here, the downfall of our government.

The prominent horn for which these rhinos are so well known has also been their

downfall.

However, opposition from boating interests proved to be the legislation's

downfall.

Librarians planted the seeds of their own destruction and are responsible for

their own downfall.

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Matching Quote

"To have striven so hard, to have molded a public personality out of so amorphous an identity, to have sustained that superhuman effort only to end with every weakness disclosed and every error compounding the downfall—that was a fate of biblical proportions. Evidently the Deity would not tolerate the presumption that all can be manipulated; an object lesson of the limits of human presumption was necessary."

-Henry Kissinger