0 an occasion when something or someone falls quickly under the influence of gravity --
1 a fast fall from a great height under the influence of gravity (= the natural force that attracts things toward the earth) without any other force acting to reduce speed: --
The parachutists are briefly in free fall before opening their parachutes.
2 a sudden, fast loss, for example in price, popularity, or value: --
The government had to act to keep the dollar from going into free fall against other currencies.
3 a sudden failure or loss of value that you are unable to stop and which continues to get worse: --
be in (a) free fall Profits are in free fall, with second-quarter earnings down 80% from last year.
go into (a) free fall The stock market went into free fall, plummeting an additional 27%.
The community spirit went into free fall, crime rocketed, and the hopes of youngsters were shattered.
In effect, the pound is in free fall.
Transport is now in free fall, or automatic pilot-whatever metaphor is used—and no one is pushing things forward.
At the same time, some other countries really were in free fall, which in a sense eclipsed the actions of certain others.
It is not by chance that fires ravage the region, that their currency is in free fall.
This does not diminish the validity of the formula as a description of the event-type "free fall," but its validity as a description of the concrete present case is abrogated.
The prediction of stability for perfect core-annular flow in a carefully selected window of parameters is verified for the case of free fall in which the applied pressure gradient vanishes.
Of the photographs measured for spike growth all indicated an acceleration of less than half the rate of free fall in the particular virtual gravity field applied.
