Account empty following one sharp fall (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
acid rain
'account empty following one sharp fall' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'account empty following one' is the wordplay.
'account' becomes 'ac' (abbreviation for account).
'empty' becomes 'drain' (draining is a kind of emptying).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'drain' put after 'i' is 'idrain'.
'ac'+'idrain'='ACID-RAIN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for acid rain that I've seen before include "pollution falling" , "it's bad for the environment" , "Destructive precipitation" , "Harmful drops" , "that pollutes" .)