fell (down) to her waist.

[ademoglu]

Hi,

to: as far as something

- Her hair fell to her waist.

Taken from: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/to_1?q=to

Is it OK to use 'down' after 'fell' in the above sentence? Does it change the meaning?

- Her hair fell down to her waist.

 

[emsr2d2]

They mean the same.

 

[GoesStation]

Adding "down" makes it sound to me like her hair had fallen out.

 

[emsr2d2]

Admittedly, it's more likely, in BrE, to say "Her hair came went/came down to her waist", or "She had waist-length hair". We use the latter construction quite frequently to refer to hair length. One of the most common is "shoulder-length". It doesn't mean "the same length as the shoulders" (!). It means "long enough to reach the shoulders".

 

[SoothingDave]

It sure didn't fall up! "Down" is optional but doesn't really add any meaning.