Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Something to which one can resort or retreat.
- noun A retreat.
- noun Something that falls back.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act or process of falling back.
- noun Something or someone to which one resorts as an alternative to a failed resource or method.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An act of falling back.
- noun A
backup plan orcontingency strategy; an alternative which can be used if something goes wrong with the main plan; arecourse . - noun construction A
reduction inbitumen softening point, sometimes called refluxing or overheating in a relatively closed container. - adjective That can be resorted to as a fallback.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun to break off a military action with an enemy
- verb retreat
- verb fall backwards and down
- verb move back and away from
- verb have recourse to
- verb go back to bad behavior
- verb hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fallback.
Examples
-
So, the fallback is to use old studies, done on dissimilar programs (human space flight and Earth/space science missions present very different challenges) and in management environments (NASA-OMB-Congress) that were quite different than they are currently.
-
I was raised Catholic, so my fallback is heaven and Jesus, but, yeah, it is SO difficult to explain.
-
"So, the fallback is to use old studies, done on dissimilar programs (human space flight and Earth/space science missions present very different challenges)"
-
My fallback is law school: it takes less time and when you're done you make your living talking a lot without actually saying anything.
Not On My Reading Shelf Ulysses 2008
-
A mixed approach is possible that tries to combine elements of counter-insurgency with a long-term fallback strategy of containment is a possibility.
-
The default theme is sometimes called the fallback theme, because if the active theme is for some reason lost or deleted, WordPress will fallback to using the default theme.
-
The default theme is sometimes called the fallback theme, because if the active theme is for some reason lost or deleted, WordPress will fallback to using the default theme.
Codex - Recent changes [en] Bono 2010
-
His fallback was a nearby commercial building he hoped to one day turn into a coffee shop.
-
The oil industry's involvement in biofuels is best characterized as a fallback plan in case the world's governments implement aggressive climate policies or OPEC and other oil-rich nations -- where state-owned oil companies reign supreme -- further restrict foreign access to oil.
Big Oil can't get beyond petroleum Daniel Sperling 2010
-
The oil industry's involvement in biofuels is best characterized as a fallback plan in case the world's governments implement aggressive climate policies or OPEC and other oil-rich nations -- where state-owned oil companies reign supreme -- further restrict foreign access to oil.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.