downfall
/ˈdaʊnfɔːl/ noun B2- A precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth. · Many economic and political reasons led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
- The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error. · Orson Scott Card It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.
- An act of falling down. · a downfall of rain
Plural downfalls
From the library
It was not over the downfall of the man, but over the defeat of the Napoleonic idea, that they rejoiced, and in this they foresaw for themselves the bright and cheering prospect of a revivified political existence.
In fact, the minister, who, in the plenitude of his power, had been unable to unearth Napoleon’s secret, might in despair at his own downfall interrogate Dantès and so lay bare the motives of Villefort’s plot.
There is a piece in the Fifth Reader--‘The Downfall of Poland’--that is just full of thrills.
He has been my ruin and my downfall.”
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