free fall

free fall or free-fall (frfôl)

n.

1. The fall of a body within the atmosphere without a drag-producing device such as a parachute.

2. The ideal falling motion of a body that is subject only to the earth's gravitational field.

3. Rapid uncontrolled decline: "The markets threatened to go into free fall and we came within an eyelash of ... an uncontrollable panic" Felix Rohatyn.

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free-fall (frfôl) v.

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free fall

Noun

1. the part of a parachute descent before the parachute opens

2. free descent of a body in which gravity is the only force acting on it

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	free fall - the ideal falling motion of something subject only to a gravitational field drop, fall - a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity; "it was a miracle that he survived the drop from that height"
	2.	free fall - a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity; "a drop of 57 points on the Dow Jones index"; "there was a drop in pressure in the pulmonary artery"; "a dip in prices"; "when that became known the price of their stock went into free fall" drop, dip, fall decrement, decrease - the amount by which something decreases correction - a drop in stock market activity or stock prices following a period of increases; "market runups are invariably followed by a correction" voltage drop - a decrease in voltage along a conductor through which current is flowing

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A parachute maneuver in which the parachute is manually activated at the discretion of the jumper or automatically at a preset altitude. See also airdrop; air movement; free drop; high velocity drop; low velocity drop.