intransitive verb
1.
a. : to withdraw friendship or support
they had only been the companions of his pleasures and would be the surest to fall away in affliction — Marcia Davenport
— often used with from
the party leaders fell away from him, and his popularity seemed on the wane
b. : to renounce one's faith : apostatize
those who had fallen away during the recent persecutions — K.S.Latourette
2.
a. : to diminish in size or height : grow gradually smaller
although the limbs are long and powerful … the animal falls away behind — James Stevenson Hamilton
b. : to swerve or drift off a line of direction
the boat kept falling away to starboard
falling away from the second baseman's tag and hooking the base with his toe as he slid past