fall for something/someone, to

To be taken in or deceived; or to be captivated by or enamored of. Originating in American slang in the late nineteenth century, the expression was adopted on both sides of the Atlantic. The two meanings are differentiated by the context. The first sense is meant in “The mayor fell for it” (R. L. McCardell, Conversations with a Cho- rus Girl, 1903), and the second in “I fell for her the first time I seen her” (Saturday Evening Post, 1914).