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Collapse   /kəlˈæps/   Listen
noun
Collapse  n.  
1.
A falling together suddenly, as of the sides of a hollow vessel.
2.
A sudden and complete failure; an utter failure of any kind; a breakdown. (Colloq.)
3.
(Med.) Extreme depression or sudden failing of all the vital powers, as the result of disease, injury, or nervous disturbance.



verb
Collapse  v. i.  (past & past part. collapsed; pres. part. collapsing)  
1.
To fall together suddenly, as the sides of a hollow vessel; to close by falling or shrinking together; to have the sides or parts of (a thing) fall in together, or be crushed in together; as, a flue in the boiler of a steam engine sometimes collapses. "A balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it."
2.
To fail suddenly and completely, like something hollow when subject to too much pressure; to undergo a collapse; as, Maximilian's government collapsed soon after the French army left Mexico; many financial projects collapse after attaining some success and importance.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Collapse" Quotes from Famous Books



... and 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 have the good of their village at heart, although their zeal, and the course ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various

... opium pill, chlorodyne, collapse, nitre, bricks to the feet, and then—the burning-ghat. The last seems to be the only thing that stops the trouble. It's black cholera, you know. Poor devils! But, I will say, little Bunsee Lal, my apothecary, works like a demon. I've recommended him for promotion if he comes ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling

... of his official position to remain in his place, nobody else was compelled to do so; and Sir Richard addressed the general, void, encasing air. There was some more speech-making of the like kind—still to empty air—when suddenly and almost unexpectedly the debate was allowed to collapse. At first, this was unintelligible—for, senseless as was the amendment, it was no worse than scores of others which the Tories have made the pretext ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... which claimed acceptance in the name neither of Justinian nor of the Church, but of universal reason. It was amply proved afterwards that the foundations of the Roman system were strong enough to carry the fabric of modern legislation. But the collapse of the Roman power in western Christendom threw society back into chaos, and reduced men's ideas of ordered justice and law to a condition compared with which the earliest Roman law known to us ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 2 - "Constantine Pavlovich" to "Convention" • Various

... (Groans.) But he hoped for better times. ("Oh! oh!") But, come what would, he would hold fast by his principles, which were, "No Compromise, No Meeting Halfway, No Arbitration, No Concession!" Men might starve, Trade collapse, the Country come to ruin, the Company disappear in Bankruptcy, but he cared not. The Directors had put their foot down, and, whether right or wrong, whatever happened, there they meant, with a good down-right national and pig-headed obstinacy, to ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 24, 1891. • Various


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