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Infall vs Onfall - What's the difference?

infall | onfall |

As nouns the difference between infall and onfall

is that infall is the act or process of falling in while onfall is a falling on or upon; an attack, onset, or assault.

As verbs the difference between infall and onfall

is that infall is to fall in while onfall is to fall on or upon.

infall

English

Noun

  • The act or process of falling in.
  • An incursion; an inroad.
  • (countable) The area where water, storm runoff, etc., enters a storm drain.
  • (astronomy, uncountable) Movement towards a massive astronomical body under the influence of gravity; especially the process whereby gas falls towards a neutron star or black hole at high speed, forming a plasma

    • Verb

  • To fall in.
  • (astronomy) To undergo infall.
  • *1997 , Bo Reipurth, Claude Bertout, Herbig-Haro flows and the birth of low mass stars :
    • After this time the beam mass loss rate decreases since once the expansion wave radius is larger than the beam, material initially outside the beam starts to infall and compensate for material which is collapsing at centre of the core [...]

    Derived terms

    * infalling

    References

    * Urban Exploration Resource

    Anagrams

    * ----

    onfall

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A falling on or upon; an attack, onset, or assault.
  • *1906 , William Henry Fitchett, Wesley and his century: a study in spiritual forces'':
    • The onfall of the bishops had helped to wreck this possibility, [...]
  • *2004 , James Legge, The Shih King :
    • Along with your 'brethren, Get ready your scaling ladders, And your engines of onfall and assault, To attack the walls of Khung.
  • *2008 , Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company :
    • Six great land battles I count, with four upon the sea, and seven-and-fifty onfalls , skirmishes and bushments.
  • A fall of rain or snow.
  • The fall of the evening.

    • Verb

  • To fall on or upon.
  • *1889 , Harry Marshall Ward, Diseases of plants :
    • [...] have been formed and ripened in large numbers, especially on the shaded ower sides of the leaves, the mycelium is practically exhausted, and as these processes are completed towards the end of the summer, the leaf so onfalls .
  • *1992 , Edgar C. Polomé, Werner Winter, Reconstructing languages and cultures :
    • 'the temple caught fire from the onfallen lightning' [...]
  • *2008 , V. V. Adushkin, Ivan Nemchinov, Catastrophic events caused by cosmic objects :
    • Quasivertical and quasihorizontal faults filled with crushed rocks can substantially change the amplitude of a seismic wave behind the fault in comparison with the amplitude of an onfalling wave [...]
  • To assault.