2.an act of falling down, especially when this is funny or embarrassing 〔尤指滑稽或尴尬的〕摔倒,跌倒
Examples from the Corpus
pratfall• To his credit, Marshall has not taken any pratfalls, even though his balance at times has been shaky.• You could have knocked us over with a feather when we saw her doing Lucystyle pratfalls and found ourselves laughing.• Even if she had the most plausibleanswers, there still would be folks wishing Clinton would continue to take political pratfalls.• And I have a spinal problem from taking pratfalls for 50 years.
Originpratfall
(1900-2000)prat“buttocks”((16-20 centuries)) + fall