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Collapse   /kəlˈæps/   Listen
Collapse

noun
1.
An abrupt failure of function or complete physical exhaustion.  Synonym: prostration.
2.
A natural event caused by something suddenly falling down or caving in.  "The collapse of the old star under its own gravity"
3.
The act of throwing yourself down.  Synonym: flop.
4.
A sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures).  Synonym: crash.
verb
(past & past part. collapsed; pres. part. collapsing)
1.
Break down, literally or metaphorically.  Synonyms: break, cave in, fall in, founder, give, give way.  "The business collapsed" , "The dam broke" , "The roof collapsed" , "The wall gave in" , "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"
2.
Collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack.  Synonym: break down.
3.
Fold or close up.  "Collapse the music stand"
4.
Fall apart.  Synonyms: break down, crumble, crumple, tumble.  "Negotiations broke down"
5.
Cause to burst.  Synonym: burst.
6.
Suffer a nervous breakdown.  Synonyms: break up, crack, crack up, crock up.
7.
Lose significance, effectiveness, or value.  "The stock market collapsed"



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"Collapse" Quotes from Famous Books



... more congenial to me. Alas! if I could really devote myself to these interests, if I could at last conquer my inertia.... But no! I shall remain to the end the incomplete creature I have always been.... The first obstacle, ... and I collapse entirely; what has passed with you has shown me that If I had but sacrificed my love to my future work, to my vocation; but I simply was afraid of the responsibility that had fallen upon me, and therefore I am, truly, ...
— Rudin • Ivan Turgenev

... blows from the axe he carried made the rough mud wall collapse, and, without a moment's hesitation Hickathrift forced his way through the hole he had broken, and from which a great volume of smoke ...
— Dick o' the Fens - A Tale of the Great East Swamp • George Manville Fenn

... without scientific help, he constructs churches, roads, and bridges. However, although these circumstances are so favorable for the development of the ability of the priest, yet it would be better for the buildings themselves if they were executed by professionals; for the bridges collapse readily, the churches often resemble sheep-folds, the more pretentious have at times most extravagant facades, and the roads quickly deteriorate again. However, each one does as well as he can. Almost all of them ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various

... that match bowled. He was prowling in sequestered lanes and broken-down barns out of bounds on the off-chance that he might catch some member of his house smoking there. As if the whole of the house, from the head to the smallest fag, were not on the field watching Day's best bats collapse before Henderson's bowling, and Moriarty hit up that marvellous and unexpected fifty-three at the end of the ...
— The Gold Bat • P. G. Wodehouse

... language, and it is a statement of the universal law of human history that, after any epoch of great aspirations and strong excitement of the noblest parts of human nature, there has always come a reaction of corruption and a collapse from weariness. What did 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' end in? A guillotine. What do all similar epochs end in, when they do not take the Christ to march ahead of them? An utter disgust and disillusion, and a despair of all progress. That is why wild revolutionists in ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren


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