Link Centre Dictionary

windfall

wind·fall

UK/ˈwɪnd.fɔːl/ US/ˈwɪnd.foːl/ uncommon

noun

1.

fruit that has fallen from the tree

2.

a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)

  • “the demand for testing has created a boom for those unregulated laboratories where boxes of specimen jars are processed like an assembly line”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English windfal, wyndfall, equivalent to wind + fall. Cognate with Middle High German wintval, wintfal, German Windfall.

Phrases

  • windfall profit
  • windfall profits tax
  • windfall shares
  • windfall tax

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.