windfall
Other forms: windfalls
Lucky you! You just won the lottery and your windfall will make life very comfortable for you and your family. A windfall is a crazy bit of unexpected good fortune.
First used in the 15th century, the word windfall originally referred to fruit that the wind blew from the trees. Like a prize was there for whomever found it — no need for the ladder and effort of picking it from the tall trees. The word eventually came to mean any unexpected and easily-gained good fortune, typically one involving money, such as the windfall profit from a lucky stock purchase.
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a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)
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fruit that has fallen from the treetype of:edible fruitedible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh
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Vocabulary lists containing windfall
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