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).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.