onfall
(ˈɒnfɔːl)
[f. on-1 4 + fall n.]
1. An attack or access of disease, plague, or calamity. Now Sc.
| c 1000 Saxon Leechd. II. 104 Drenc wiþ onfealle. a 1300 Cursor M. 5943 Ful yern on godd bi-gun þai call To liuer þe folk on þat on-fall. Ibid. 27738 Wreth it es a brath on-fall. 1808–18 Jamieson, Onfall, a disease which attacks without any apparent cause. |
2. gen. An attack, assault, onset. (lit. and fig.)
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. vii. iii, Death by starvation and military onfall. 1880 M. Pattison Milton vi. 76 A violent personal onfall upon Joseph Hall. 1889 Doyle Micah Clarke xxxii. 341 Who ever saw a camp so exposed to an onfall? |
3. Sc. a. A fall of rain or snow. b. The fall of the evening.
| ? a 1800 Old Song (Jam.), But or the onfa' o' the nicht, She fand him drown'd in Yarrow. 1821 Ayr Courier 1 Feb. (Jam.) The snow lay thick..but the on-fall had ceased. |