Befall
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Case; instance; circumstance; event; incident; accident.
"Or he had tolde al his befall."
- 1 To fall upon; fall all over; overtake. transitive
"At dusk an unusual calm befalls the wetlands."
- 2 happen, occur, or be the case in the course of events or by chance wordnet
- 3 To happen. intransitive
"It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon [...] that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time."
- 4 become of; happen to wordnet
- 5 To happen to. transitive
"Temptation befell me."
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- 6 To fall. intransitive, obsolete
"With a thought I tooke for Maudline & a cruse of cockle pottage. with a thing thus tall, skie blesse you all: I befell into this dotage."
Example
More examples"Rejoice over the good things which come to you, but grieve in moderation over the evils which befall you."
Etymology
From Middle English bifallen, from Old English befeallan, from Proto-West Germanic *bifallan, from Proto-Germanic *bifallaną; equivalent to be- + fall.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.