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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
befall
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a fate befalls sbformal (= someone suffers a particular fate)
▪ I wondered what fate would befall me.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
disaster
▪ Thieves, war and other disasters may befall you.
▪ Audiences continued to respond to the warnings of the disaster which would befall were this rule not respected.
▪ But today, after the disaster that has befallen a very traditional Labour strategy, things may change.
▪ Despite the economic disaster that had befallen his country in the decade he had held power, he was confident of victory.
▪ But I hardly like to tell you about the disaster that befell Angela within the next few minutes.
▪ The disaster befalling him was huge.
fate
▪ Thankfully this fate has not befallen a splendid exponent of rabbinical humour, Rabbi Lionel Blue.
▪ A worse fate has befallen the general interest, mass circulation magazines, once the dominant national media.
▪ As we drew near and I watched 747 after 747 climbing laboriously into the clouds, I wondered what fate befell me.
▪ Ward envied them their ignorance of the fate that had befallen the city they had helped found.
▪ A similar fate befell other proposals over the following years.
▪ This time I knew what fate was about to befall me.
▪ An even more tragic fate befell many who, amid the crazed stampede, were able to get out of the fort.
▪ Our wheat and our maize have experienced the same fate that befell our apples and pears.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A similar crisis could befall the nation's banks.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Despite the economic disaster that had befallen his country in the decade he had held power, he was confident of victory.
▪ For his own good she frequently reminded him of the horrors and deprivations that would befall him there.
▪ He clings to power largely because his Sunni-dominated army is afraid of the revenge that would befall it if he fell.
▪ I shared the joke, wondering just what fate might befall me later in the morning.
▪ In addressing his case, Simpson says Fuhrman is a critical link to the misery that has befallen him.
▪ Ishmael, worried for fear some evil has befallen Queequeg, rushes to the landlady and asks for a key.
▪ Now another misfortune befell the invaders.
▪ The changes that befall us along the way are just the various experiences that we encounter on our journey.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Befall

Befall \Be*fall"\, v. t. [imp. Befell; p. p. Befallen; p. pr. & vb. n. Befalling.] [AS. befeallan; pref. be- + feallan to fall.] To happen to.

I beseech your grace that I may know The worst that may befall me.
--Shak.

Befall

Befall \Be*fall"\, v. i. To come to pass; to happen.

I have revealed . . . the discord which befell.
--Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
befall

Old English befeallan "to deprive of; fall to, be assigned to; befall," from be- "by, about" + feallan (see fall). Compare Old Frisian bifalla, Old Saxon, Old High German bifallan, German befallen. Related: Befell; befalling.

Wiktionary
befall

n. case; instance; circumstance; event; incident; accident. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To happen. 2 (context transitive English) To happen to.

WordNet
befall
  1. v. become of; happen to; "He promised that no harm would befall her"; "What has become of my children?" [syn: bechance, betide]

  2. happen, occur, or be the case in the course of events or by chance; "It happens that today is my birthday"; "These things befell" (Santayana) [syn: happen, bechance]

  3. [also: befell, befallen]

Usage examples of "befall".

I may abide here beyond the two days if the adventure befall me not ere then.

There he abode a little, wondering at all these things and all that had befallen him since he had left Upmeads.

There befell the battle of Huan and Wolf-Sauron, and howls and baying echoed in the hills, and the watchers on the walls of Ered Wethrin across the valley heard it afar and were dismayed.

After that night, so rich in delights, ten or twelve days passed without giving us any opportunity of quenching even a small particle of the amorous thirst which devoured us, and it was then that a fearful misfortune befell me.

I have this regrettable circumstance to thank for those which befell me at the end of the duration, when the argosy eventually came to dock in Sarribad.

Then remembering what had befallen him, and his head beating as though it would split asunder, he shut his eyes again, contriving with great effort to keep himself from groaning aloud, and wondering as to what sort of pirates these could be, who would first knock a man in the head so terrible a blow as that which he had suffered, and then take such care to fetch him back to life again, and to make him easy and comfortable.

But the mass of the People, at that time still freshly remembered the terrible commercial disasters and industrial depressions which had befallen the Land, through the practical operation of that baleful Democratic Free-Trade doctrine, before the Rebellion broke out, and sharply contrasted the misery and poverty and despair of those dark days of ruin and desolation, with the comfort and prosperity and hopefulness which had since come to them through the Republican Protective-Tariff Accordingly, the Republican Presidential candidate, representing the great principle of Protection to American Industries, was elected over the Democratic Free-Trade candidate, by 214 to 71 electoral votes-or nearly three to one!

Then, as time sped on and the sun approached its setting and still no one came, she bethought her that if harm had befallen Marius, none would ride that night to Condillac.

The young blonde girl being blindfolded had no way of knowing what was about to befall her next.

Sir James without a buckler through some accident that befell before he entered the lists?

The die is cast, and I see that I must submit to your decision, or rather to my destiny, for none but fatal events have befallen me since I came to Switzerland.

Then Capel addressed them, outlining the tragedy that had befallen his captain and most of the men.

Gwawl the son of Clud, a man of great power and wealth, and because of the word thou hast spoken, bestow me upon him lest shame befall thee.

Perhaps I might not remember the exact words of a sentence, but I was at liberty to replace them by other expressions as good, and as I never happened to be at a loss, or to be struck dumb, when I spoke in society, it was not likely that such an untoward accident would befall me before an audience amongst whom I did not know anyone who could intimidate me and cause me suddenly to lose the faculty of reason or of speech.

I went to the Toscani and we set out for Louisbourg, where we had a capital dinner, and my spirits ran so high that my companions could never have guessed the misfortune that had just befallen me.