collapse

UK/kəˈlæps/US/kəˈlæps/

verbB25 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,496 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: collapsed, collapses, collapsing

To collapse is to fall down all at once, with nothing left holding it up. A roof under too much snow, a runner collapsing at the finish line, a deckchair folding under you.

Buildings and bridges collapse; so do people, from illness or exhaustion. So do things you cannot touch: talks collapse, a currency collapses, a marriage collapses, a court case collapses when the evidence goes. There is a mild everyday version too — you collapse onto the sofa after work, meaning you drop into it gratefully. Collapsible things are built to fold away: a collapsible chair, a collapsible pushchair. The noun is the same word, and it likes OF: the collapse of the roof, the collapse of the deal.

Definitions of collapse

1verbcollapseTo fall down or cave in suddenly.B2~8%
“The old barn collapsed in the storm.”
synonyms: cave in, give way
2verbillnessOf a person: to fall down from illness, weakness or exhaustion.B2~2%
“He collapsed in the street and was taken to hospital.”
3verbplanOf a plan, market or system: to fail suddenly and completely.B2~8%
“The talks collapsed after only two days.”
4verbfoldTo fold something flat for carrying or storing.B2~2%
“The table collapses down to the size of a suitcase.”
5nounfailureA sudden falling down, or a sudden failure.B2~80%
“The collapse of the bank wiped out thousands of savings.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 27 sentences found in the wild and placed 25 of them on a sense (2 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Collapse arrived whole from Latin collāpsus, the past participle of collābor. English took the finished form rather than the verb — not falling but fallen, already down in a heap — which is part of why the word still sounds so sudden.

Latin
collāpsus
English, today
collapse

From Latin collāpsus (past participle of collābor).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, A Man Called Ove, Ways of Moving

First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

collapse in the wild

All stars are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust, often called nebulae or molecular clouds.
Stellar evolution
In the Copenhagen interpretation, wave function collapse connects quantum to classical models, with a special role for the observer.
Wave function collapse
By contrast, objective-collapse proposes an origin in physical processes.
Wave function collapse
At 9:03 a.m., the South Tower (WTC 2) was struck by United Airlines Flight 175; it collapsed at 9:59 a.m. after burning for 56 minutes.
Collapse of the World Trade Center
In 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the results of its investigation into the collapse.
Collapse of the World Trade Center

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the collāpsus family

collapse

collapse — used about once every 607 pages · #3,496 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of collapse

1verbcollapseTo fall down or cave in suddenly.B2~8%

“The old barn collapsed in the storm.”

synonyms: cave in, give way

2verbillnessOf a person: to fall down from illness, weakness or exhaustion.B2~2%

“He collapsed in the street and was taken to hospital.”

3verbplanOf a plan, market or system: to fail suddenly and completely.B2~8%

“The talks collapsed after only two days.”

4verbfoldTo fold something flat for carrying or storing.B2~2%

“The table collapses down to the size of a suitcase.”

5nounfailureA sudden falling down, or a sudden failure.B2~80%

“The collapse of the bank wiped out thousands of savings.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 27 sentences found in the wild and placed 25 of them on a sense (2 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.