fallback, keep up the dust, pan out

  ISIS' Grip on Libyan City Gives It a Fallback Option

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, BEN HUBBARD and ERIC SCHMITT

The Mediterranean port city of Surt has become an actively managed colony of the Islamic State, which has come under growing military and economic pressure in Syria and Iraq.

If his attempt at re-election doesn't pan out, it's nice to know he's got a solid fallback.

Here’s Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Dropping Some Sick Beats | TIME.com

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The polemical politician took a crack at DJ-ing

 

 

 

Kicking Up the Dust in an Arizona Desert Town

By JENNIFER MEDINA

The town government of Quartzsite is split by accusations of corruption on one side and intentional disruption on the other.

Fallback Moving to Fore as Talks on Budget Stall

By JACKIE CALMES and CARL HULSE

Congressional leaders are negotiating a fallback plan as President Obama and House Republicans intensified their efforts to win over public opinion.

Clear Channel Communications has been quiet about its fallback options in the event that shareholders reject its proposal to go private. But an analyst at Bear Stearns sees plenty of possibilities for what the nation's largest radio broadcaster could do next.

The luck is concentrated — when it’s good it’s magnificent; when it’s bad, there’s no fallback position.”

keep up

Malfunction, cause trouble or pain, as in My grandmother's arthritis is kicking up again. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s] Also see act up; also subsequent entries beginning with kick up.

pan out

• 1 turn out well: Harold’s idea had been a good one even if it hadn’t panned out
  

  More example sentencesSynonyms
• 1.1 end up; conclude: he’s happy with the way the deal panned out
  

  More example sentencesSynonyms

fall back on sth phrasal verb
to use something for help because no other choice is available:
When the business failed, we had to fall back on our savings.
If I lose my job, I'll have nothing to fall back on.

fallback Show phonetics
adjective [before noun]
describes a plan or position which can be used if other plans do not succeed or other things are not available:
Do we have a fallback position for these negotiations?

fall・back

（いざという時の）頼みの綱; 【コンピュータ】（故障時の）代替システム.

fallback
(fôl'băk')
n.

1. 1. Something to which one can resort or retreat.
   2. A retreat.
2. Computer Science. A mechanism for carrying forth programmed instructions despite malfunction or failure of the primary device.
3. Something that falls back: the fallback of a huge explosion.

adj.
Of, relating to, or constituting a resort or place of retreat: a fallback proposal; a fallback position behind our own lines.