Part 29

Milton.

2. (Logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a sophism.

Syn. -- Deception; deceit; mistake. -- Fallacy, Sophistry. A fallacy is an argument which professes to be decisive, but in reality is not; sophistry is also false reasoning, but of so specious and subtle a kind as to render it difficult to expose its fallacy. Many fallacies are obvious, but the evil of sophistry lies in its consummate art. "Men are apt to suffer their minds to be misled by fallacies which gratify their passions. Many persons have obscured and confounded the nature of things by their wretched sophistry; though an act be never so sinful, they will strip it of its guilt." South.

Fal"-lals` (?), n. pl. Gay ornaments; frippery; gewgaws. [Colloq.] Thackeray.

Fal"lax (?), n. [L. fallax deceptive. See Fallacy.] Cavillation; a caviling. [Obs.] Cranmer.

Fall"en (?), a. Dropped; prostrate; degraded; ruined; decreased; dead.

Some ruined temple or fallen monument.

Rogers.

Fal"len*cy (?), n. [LL. fallentia, L. fallens p. pr of fallere.] An exception. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

Fall"er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, falls.

2. (Mach.) A part which acts by falling, as a stamp in a fulling mill, or the device in a spinning machine to arrest motion when a thread breaks.

Fall"fish` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) A fresh-water fish of the United States (Semotilus bullaris); -- called also silver chub, and Shiner. The name is also applied to other allied species.

Fal`li*bil"i*ty (?), n. The state of being fallible; liability to deceive or to be deceived; as, the fallibity of an argument or of an adviser.

Fal"li*ble (?), a. [LL. fallibilis, fr. L. fallere to deceive: cf. F. faillible. See Fail.] Liable to fail, mistake, or err; liable to deceive or to be deceived; as, all men are fallible; our opinions and hopes are fallible.

Fal"li*bly, adv. In a fallible manner.

Fall"ing (?), a. & n. from Fall, v. i.

Falling away, Falling off, etc. See To fall away, To fall off, etc., under Fall, v. i. -- Falling band, the plain, broad, linen collar turning down over the doublet, worn in the early part of the 17th century. -- Falling sickness (Med.), epilepsy. Shak. -- Falling star. (Astron.) See Shooting star. -- Falling stone, a stone falling through the atmosphere; a meteorite; an aÎrolite. -- Falling tide, the ebb tide. -- Falling weather, a rainy season. [Colloq.] Bartlett.

Fal*lo"pi*an (?), a. [From Fallopius, or Fallopio, a physician of Modena, who died in 1562.] (Anat.) Pertaining to, or discovered by, Fallopius; as, the Fallopian tubes or oviducts, the ducts or canals which conduct the ova from the ovaries to the uterus.

Fal"low (?), a. [AS. fealu, fealo, pale yellow or red; akin to D. vaal fallow, faded, OHG. falo, G. falb, fahl, Icel. fˆlr, and prob. to Lith. palvas, OSlav. plav white, L. pallidus pale, pallere to be pale, Gr. polio`s gray, Skr. palita. Cf. Pale, Favel, a., Favor.] 1. Pale red or pale yellow; as, a fallow deer or greyhound. Shak.

2. [Cf. Fallow, n.] Left untilled or unsowed after plowing; uncultivated; as, fallow ground.

Fallow chat, Fallow finch (Zoˆl.), a small European bird, the wheatear (Saxicola únanthe). See Wheatear.

Fal"low, n. [So called from the fallow, or somewhat yellow, color of naked ground; or perh. akin to E. felly, n., cf. MHG. valgen to plow up, OHG. felga felly, harrow.] 1. Plowed land. [Obs.]

Who . . . pricketh his blind horse over the fallows.

Chaucer.

2. Land that has lain a year or more untilled or unseeded; land plowed without being sowed for the season.

The plowing of fallows is a benefit to land.

Mortimer.

3. The plowing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season; as, summer fallow, properly conducted, has ever been found a sure method of destroying weeds.