windfall

[Eng. wind (1), s., and fall.] I. Literally: 1. Something blown down by the wind, as fruit from a tree, or trees in a forest. "Cro ing tracts of burnt timber or windfalls , where the huge logs lay piled over each other in inextricable confusion."- Field , Feb. 17, 1887. 2. A violent gust of wind rushing from coast 3. The track of a whirlwind or tornado in a forest where the trees are laid prostrate. ( Amer .) ranges and mountains to the sea. "These windfalls were great places for rabbits and part ridges."-Hammond: Wild Northern Scenes, p. 220. II. Fig .: An unexpected piece of good fortune, as an unexpected legacy. "As a body, the farmers found the rinderpest a wind fall."-British Quarterly Review , lvii. 213. (1873.)