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windfall

[wind-fawl]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an unexpected gain, piece of good fortune, or the like.

something blown down by the wind, as fruit.

adjective

accruing in unexpectedly large amounts: windfall profits.

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Windfall is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Origin:
1425–75; late Middle English; see wind¹, fall

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To windfall

Example Sentences

The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to reap a windfall from a surprisingly lucrative niche market: drugs for poor people.

Rather than invest the windfall at home, however, the.

The windfall may well change the country's politics.

EXPAND

The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to reap a windfall from a surprisingly lucrative niche market: drugs for poor people.

Rather than invest the windfall at home, however, the.

The windfall may well change the country's politics.

Still unable to fly, their emergence provides a windfall for predators.

Most people will take a windfall today even if it screws them and their descendents down the road.

The windfall should also buy time to integrate the nonoil parts of the operation, but recent signs aren't encouraging.

Promises of windfall riches are seductive to states.

Just think of the financial windfall to the state budget if they don't.

Exporters of oil are saving more of their recent windfall than in previous price booms.

But things changed when the war ended and windfall profits stopped.

The stimulus law provided a windfall of food at a time when some food banks had had to turn the hungry away.

Clifford has made millions of dollars from government programs but doesn't seem to see the windfall that way.

But students now hope that falling prices will provide them with a windfall.

We decided to use a portion of this windfall to offset the airline emissions.

Critics said it represented a potential new windfall for lenders.

The provision is intended for companies to avoid double taxation, but acts as a windfall for the oil industry.

Nooks and crannies warmed by log fires burning windfall timber.

As might be expected, this is a windfall for the insurance industry.

Some of the money to pay for these schemes will come from a windfall tax on mining profits.

What a windfall for humanity if that lesson can be broadly delivered at the grade-school level.

The government's decision to save so much of the copper windfall was not popular at the time.

All this does is give a windfall to the tortfeasor's insurers.

He warns that placing fresh burdens on the banks-last year they were hit with a windfall tax-will inhibit lending.

Worse still, the distribution of monthly profits was negatively skewed: big losses were more likely to occur than windfall gains.

Europe's finances were flattered by a windfall in revenue from the auction of third generation mobile-phone licences.

The new government is expected to introduce a windfall tax on mining profits.

He blames a windfall tax that has encouraged small producers to sell gold on the black market rather than to the bank.

Europe gave them away, which allowed polluters to make windfall profits.

The talk may be about a windfall tax on oil companies, but the action will be on boosting subsidies for alternative fuels.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

windfall (ˈwɪndˌfɔːl)

—n
1.	a piece of unexpected good fortune, esp financial gain
2.	something blown down by the wind, esp a piece of fruit
3.	chiefly (US), (Canadian) a plot of land covered with trees blown down by the wind

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

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

windfall

1464, from wind (n.) + fall. Originally literal, in ref. to wood or fruit blown down by the wind, and thus free to all. Fig. sense of "unexpected acquisition" is recorded from 1542.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

windfall definition

An unexpected profit from a business or other source. The term connotes gaining huge profits without working for them — for example, when oil companies profit from a temporary scarcity of oil.

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windfall definition