collapse
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
collapse/kəˈlaps/
▶verb
- 1 (of a structure) suddenly fall down or give way.
■ (usu. as adj. collapsed) (of a lung or blood vessel) fall inwards and become flat and empty.
- 2 fall down as a result of illness or injury.
- 3 fail suddenly and completely.
- 1 an instance of a structure collapsing.
- 2 a sudden failure or breakdown.
– origin C17: from medical L. collaps-, collabi, from col- ‘together’ + labi ‘to slip’.
'collapse' also found in these Oxford entries:
atelectasis
- breakdown
- burnout
- caldera
- cataplexy
- cave
- collapsar
- drop
- failure
- fall
- flop
- fly
- founder
- hunchback
- implode
- landfall
- meltdown
- neutron star
- pneumothorax
- puncture
- rickety
- rockburst
- rope
- ruin
- seam
- slough
- totter
- undermine
- unravel
- unstable
- way
