Also 5 taw-, 5–6 tu-, 6 tuf-, (tul-), toy-, 7–9 too-, 9 two-, tee-, -fa, -fal, -falle. [f. TO prep. + FALL v. or sb. In sense 2 = MHG. zuoval, Ger. zufall, Du. toeval, LG. tofal.]
1. A supplementary building with its roof sloping up to and leaning on the wall of a main building; a lean-to; a penthouse; a shed. Sc. and north. dial.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. v. 568. Þe north ile and þe quere, þe tofallis ii. war mad but were.
1435. Nottingham Rec., II. 359. A tawfall’ yat standes on ye comon ground.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 254. Þe kyngis nowte-hard … tuke provand … to his catell, & had it home vnto his tofall at he dwelte in. Ibid., 393. The erle … ffled with his wife in-to a wudd, and þer he hid hym in a tufall.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7651. Þai made þaim tofalles To duell in vndir þe walles.
1512. Nottingham Rec., III. 402. The tofalle that ye chyldern lerne inne.
1518. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1869), I. 178. Na tulfais be biggitt to the said wallis.
1523. in Visit. Southwell (Camden), 121. My tuffall of paysen the which standeth over myn oxen.
1642–3. in J. Watson, Jedburgh Abbey (1894), 86. That ane roofe to-fa-wayis may theik vnder the eising of the body of the kirk.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1851), II. 154. He tirrit the too-fallis of the haill office houssis … and careit rooff and sklait away.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Toofall, Twofall, or Teefall,… often pronounced Touffa.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 12. Piling them against a high wall, and thatching them like a to-fall.
1887. D. H. Fleming, Tourist’s Hand-bk. St. Andrews, 31. The slight raggle … marks the height of some to-fall.
b. fig. (a) A dependant. (b) A shelter.
1822. Ainslie, Land of Burns, 209. He was a sort o’ toofa’ upon their kindness.
1871. Waddell, Ps. xviii. 2. The Lord my rock, my hainin-towir, an’ my to-fa’.
† 2. That which befalls or falls to any one; a chance, accident, casualty: cf. FALL v. 46. Obs.
1562. Turner, Baths, 17. These that are rytche … may haue other remedies inough agaynst the forenamed tofalles.
1572. J. Jones, Bathes of Bath, III. 22. Accident is that, which the Greekes call Symptoma, and wee properly in English, to fall and with fall.
3. The act of falling to; to-fall of the day or night, the close of day or beginning of night. Sc.
1749. Collins, Ode Superstit. Highl., 123. For him in vain at to-fall of the day, His babes shall linger.
a. 1754. W. Hamilton, Braes of Yarrow, xx. But ere the toofall of the night He lay a corps on the Braes of Yarrow.
1831. J. Wilson, Unimore, x. 165. Who only waits the to-fall of the night To wake the jocund sound of dance and song.
