Dictionary Definition
collapse
Noun
1 an abrupt failure of function or health
2 a mishap caused by something suddenly falling
down or caving in
3 the act of throwing yourself down; "he landed
on the bed with a great flop" [syn: flop]
4 a sudden large decline of business or the
prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures)
[syn: crash]
Verb
1 break down, literally or metaphorically; "The
wall collapsed"; "The business collapsed"; "The dam broke"; "The
roof collapsed"; "The wall gave in"; "The roof finally gave under
the weight of the ice" [syn: fall in, cave in, give, give way,
break, founder]
2 collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a
sudden attack [syn: break
down]
3 fold or close up; "fold up your umbrella";
"collapse the music stand"
4 fall apart; "the building crimbled after the
explosion"; "Negociations broke down" [syn: crumble, crumple, tumble, break
down]
5 cause to burst; "The ice broke the pipe" [syn:
burst]
7 lose significance, effectiveness, or value;
"The school system is collapsing"; "The stock market
collapsed"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -æps
Verb
Translations
to fall down suddenly; to cave in
- Finnish: sortua, romahtaa, luhistua
- German: einstürzen, kollabieren
- Italian: collassare, crollare
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: ڕوخان
to cease to function due to a sudden breakdown
- Finnish: romahtaa
- German: zusammenbrechen, kollabieren
- Italian: collassare, bloccarsi, arrestarsi
to fold compactly
- Finnish: luhistua
- Italian: collassare, crollare
cricket term
to cause to collapse
- Finnish: romauttaa, romahduttaa, purkaa, kaataa, rommauttaa
- Italian: far collassare, far crollare
Noun
- The act of collapsing
- Constant function, one-valued function (in automata theory) (in particular application causing a reset)
Translations
act of collapsing
- Dutch: instorten
- Finnish: romahdus, sortuminen, luhistuminen
- German: Kollaps
- Hebrew: התמוטטות (hitmot'et'ut) , קריסה (qrisa)
- Italian: collasso (in medicine), crollo (material and financial), tracollo (in finance)
- Portuguese: colapso
one-valued function
- Italian: funzione costante, collasso
Extensive Definition
Collapse may refer to the following:
- Gravitational collapse
- Societal collapse
- Wavefunction collapse
- Collapse (Album), an album by the American metalcore band Across Five Aprils
- Collapse (geometry)
- Collapse (medical)
- Collapse (mental)
- Collapse (structural)
- Cave-in is a kind of structural collapse.
- Collapse, the action a collapsible or telescoping object does
- Collapse (book) by Jared M. Diamond
- Collapse (game)
- Collapse, a fictional event in the computer game Dreamfall.
- The Collapse (Deus Ex), another fictional event within the plot of the computer game Deus Ex and its sequel Deus Ex: Invisible War.
- "Collapse," a song by Soul Coughing from their 1994 album Ruby Vroom.
- "Collapse," a song by Sparta from their 2002 album Wiretap Scars.
- "Collapse," also a song by Imperative Reaction from their 2006 album As We Fall.
collapse in French: Effondrement
collapse in Italian: Collasso
collapse in Russian: Коллапс
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
OD,
Waterloo, amiable
weakness, bankruptcy,
be brought down, be felled, be found wanting, be ruined, be struck
down, be traumatized, beating, become insolvent,
bend, blow, bouncing check, break, break down, break out,
break up, breakability, breakage, breakdown, breaking up,
breakup, brittleness, burn out,
bust, cascade, catabasis, cataclysm, cataract, catastrophe, catch, catch cold, cave, cave in, cave-in, changeableness, chute, circulatory collapse,
collapse, come apart,
come down, come down with, come short, come to naught, come to
nothing, come unstuck, comedown, conk out, conquering, conquest, contract, crack, crack up, crack-up,
crackup, crash, crippling, cropper, crumble, crumple, daintiness, damage, deathblow, debacle, deceleration, declension, declination, decline, decline and fall,
decrescendo,
defeat, deflate, deflation, defluxion, delicacy, descend, descending, descension, descent, destructibility,
destruction,
detriment, dilapidation, diminish, diminuendo, dip down,
disablement,
disappear, disappearance, disaster, disintegrate, disintegration, disorganization,
disrepair, disruption, dissolution, dissolve, dive, down, downbend, downcome, downcurve, downfall, downflow, downgrade, downpour, downrush, downtrend, downturn, downward trend,
draining, droop, drop, drop down, drop off, dropping, drubbing, dwindling, ebb, effeminacy, encroachment, erupt, evaporate, exhaust, exhaustedness, exhaustion, fade, fag, fail, failure, faint, fall, fall away, fall dead, fall
down, fall flat, fall in, fall off, fall short, fall stillborn,
fall through, fall to pieces, falling, fatigue, fever, fizzle out, flag, flimsiness, fold, fold up, founder, fragility, frailty, frangibility, gasp, get, get bogged down, get hung up,
get mired, get tired, give out, give way, go, go bankrupt, go broke, go down,
go downhill, go into receivership, go into shock, go soft, go to
pieces, go to pot, go to ruin, go to smash, go under, go up,
gravitate, gravitation, grow weary,
harm, hiding, hit the skids, hobbling, human frailty,
hurt, hurting, impairment, implode, implosion, incapacitation, inclination, indecisiveness, infirmity
of will, infringement, inherent
vice, injury, inroad, insolvency, insufficient
funds, irresolution, jade, keel over, kited check,
lack, lag, lambasting, languish, lapse, lathering, licking, lightness, lose altitude, lose
ground, loss, maiming, mastery, mayhem, mischief, moral weakness,
mutilation, nervous
breakdown, nervous exhaustion, nervous prostration, neurasthenia, nose dive,
not answer, not hack it, not make it, not make out, not measure up,
not stretch, not suffice, overcoming, overdose, overdraft, overdrawn account,
overthrow, overturn, pant, parachute, pass out, peg out,
peter out, pine, pitch, play out, plummet, plummeting, plunge, poop out, pounce, pour down, pratfall, precipitate, prostration, puff, puff and blow, puncture, quietus, rain, rapids, receivership, remission, retreat, ruin, ruination, ruining, ruinousness, run a
temperature, run down, run out, run short, sabotage, scathe, shatter, shipwreck, shut down, sicken, sickening, sink, sleaziness, slightness, slowdown, slump, smash, smashup, spoiling, stoop, stop short, stumble, subdual, subduing, subjugation, subsidence, succumb, sway, swoon, swoop, tailspin, take, take ill, thrashing, tire, topple, topple down, topple over,
total loss, totter, trend
downward, trimming,
trouncing, tumble, undoing, unsubstantiality,
vanquishment,
velleity, wane, want, washout, waterfall, weaken, weakening, wear away, wear
thin, weary, wheeze, whipping, wilt, wispiness, womanishness, wrack, wreck, yield