Brewer's: Crestfallen

Dispirited. The allusion is to fighting cocks, whose crest falls in defeat and rises rigid and of a deep red colour in victory.

“Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?” Shakespeare: Richard II., i.1.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content