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. [1913 Webster]
"A balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it." [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]

collapse, n.

A falling together suddenly, as of the sides of a hollow vessel. [1913 Webster]
A sudden and complete failure; an utter failure of any kind; a breakdown. [1913 Webster]
Extreme depression or sudden failing of all the vital powers, as the result of disease, injury, or nervous disturbance. [1913 Webster]

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

collapse, n. & v.
--n.
1 the tumbling down or falling in of a structure; folding up; giving way.
2 a sudden failure of a plan, undertaking, etc.
3 a physical or mental breakdown.
--v.
1 a intr. undergo or experience a collapse. b tr. cause to collapse.
2 intr. colloq. lie or sit down and relax, esp. after prolonged effort (collapsed into a chair).
3 a intr. (of furniture etc.) be foldable into a small space. b tr. fold (furniture) in this way.

Derivative

collapsible adj. collapsibility n.

Etymology

L collapsus past part. of collabi (as COM-, labi slip)

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THESAURUS

collapse

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

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ROGET THESAURUS

collapse

Deterioration

N deterioration, debasement, wane, ebb, recession, retrogradation, decrease, degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness, degradation, depravation, depravement, devolution, depravity, demoralization, retrogression, masochism, impairment, inquination, injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration, outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scath, perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, oxidation, pollution, defoedation, poisoning, venenation, leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy, decline, declension, declination, decadence, decadency, falling off, caducity, decrepitude, decay, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear, corrosion, erosion, moldiness, rottenness, moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marasmus, atrophy, collapse, disorganization, delabrement (destruction), aphid, Aphis, plant louse, puceron, vinefretter, vinegrub, wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra, jade, plug, rackabones, skate, tackey, tacky, have seen better days, deteriorate, degenerate, fall off, wane, ebb, retrograde, decline, droop, go down, go downhill, go from bad to worse, go farther and fare worse, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, run to seed, go to seed, run to waste swale, sweal, lapse, be the worse for, sphacelate: break, break down, spring a leak, crack, start, shrivel, fade, go off, wither, molder, rot, rankle, decay, go bad, go to decay, fall into decay, fall into the sear and yellow leaf, rust, crumble, shake, totter, totter to its fall, perish, die, deteriorate, weaken, put back, set back, taint, infect, contaminate, poison, empoison, envenom, canker, corrupt, exulcerate, pollute, vitiate, inquinate, debase, embase, denaturalize, denature, leaven, deflower, debauch, defile, deprave, degrade, ulcerate, stain, discolor, alloy, adulterate, sophisticate, tamper with, prejudice, pervert, prostitute, demoralize, brutalize, render vicious, embitter, acerbate, exacerbate, aggravate, injure, impair, labefy, damage, harm, hurt, shend, scath, scathe, spoil, mar, despoil, dilapidate, waste, overrun, ravage, pillage, wound, stab, pierce, maim, lame, surbate, cripple, hough, hamstring, hit between wind and water, scotch, mangle, mutilate, disfigure, blemish, deface, warp, blight, rot, corrode, erode, wear away, wear out, gnaw, gnaw at the root of, sap, mine, undermine, shake, sap the foundations of, break up, disorganize, dismantle, dismast, destroy, damnify, do one's worst, knock down, deal a blow to, play havoc with, play sad havoc with, play the mischief with, play the deuce with, play the very devil with, play havoc among, play sad havoc among, play the mischief among, play the deuce among, play the very devil among, decimate, Adj, unimproved &c (improve), deteriorated, altered, altered for the worse, injured, sprung, withering, spoiling, on the wane, on the decline, tabid, degenerate, marescent, worse, the worse for, all the worse for, out of repair, out of tune, imperfect, the worse for wear, battered, weathered, weather-beaten, stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare, worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags, reduced, reduced to a skeleton, far gone, tacky, decayed, moth-eaten, worm-eaten, mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown, discolored, effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted, depraved, decrepid, decrepit, broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat, out of action, broken down, done, done for, done up, worn out, used up, finished, beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work, at a low ebb, in a bad way, on one's last legs, undermined, deciduous, nodding to its fall, tottering, past cure, fatigued, retrograde, deleterious, out of the frying pan into the fire, agrescit medendo, what a falling off was there!.

Fatigue

N fatigue, weariness, yawning, drowsiness, lassitude, tiredness, fatigation, exhaustion, sweat, dyspnoea, anhelation, shortness of breath, faintness, collapse, prostration, swoon, fainting, deliquium, syncope, lipothymy, goneness, fatigued, tired, weary, drowsy, drooping, haggard, toilworn, wayworn:, footsore, surbated, weather-beaten, faint, done up, used up, knocked up, bushed, exhausted, prostrate, spent, overtired, overspent, overfatigued, unrefreshed, unrestored, worn, worn out, battered, shattered, pulled down, seedy, altered, breathless, windless, short of breath, out of breath, short of wind, blown, puffing and blowing, short-breathed, anhelose, broken winded, short-winded, dyspnaeal, dyspnaeic, ready to drop, all in, more dead than alive, dog-weary, walked off one's legs, tired to death, on one's last legs, played out, hors de combat, fatiguing, tiresome, irksome, wearisome, weary, trying.

Noncompletion

VB not complete, leave unfinished, leave undone, drop, put down, neglect, let alone, let slip, lose sight of (forget), fall short of, do things by halves, parboil, scotch the snake not lull it, hang fire, be slow to, collapse, drop out.

Failure

N failure, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment, dead failure, successlessness, abortion, miscarriage, brutum fulmen, labor in vain, no go, inefficacy, inefficaciousness, vain attempt, ineffectual attempt, abortive attempt, abortive efforts, flash in the pan, lame and impotent conclusion, frustration, slip 'twixt cup and lip, blunder, fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall, false step, wrong step, faux pas, titubation, b_evue, faute, lurch, botchery, scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown, flunk, mishap, split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion, repulse, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture, beating, drubbing, quietus, nonsuit, subjugation, checkmate, stalemate, fool's mate, fall, downfall, ruin, perdition, wreck, deathblow, bankruptcy, losing game, affaire flamb_ee, victim, bankrupt, flunker, flunky, unsuccessful, successless, failing, tripping, at fault, unfortunate, abortive, addle, stillborn, fruitless, bootless, ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory, inefficient, insufficient, unavailing, of no effect, aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited, foiled, defeated, struck down, borne down, broken down, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, all up with, ploughed, plowed, plucked, lost, undone, ruined, broken, bankrupt, played out, done up, done for, dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head, destroyed, frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed, thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends, unhorsed, in a sorry plight, hard hit, stultified, befooled, dished, hoist on one's own petard, victimized, sacrificed, wide of the mark, out of one's reckoning, left in the lurch, thrown away, unattained, uncompleted, unsuccessfully, to little or no purpose, in vain, re infecta, the bubble has burst, the jig is up, the game is up, all is lost, the devil to pay, parturiunt montes, dies infaustus, tout est perdu hors l'honneur.

VB fail, be unsuccessful, not succeed, make vain efforts, do in vain, labor in vain, toil in vain, flunk, lose one's labor, take nothing by one's motion, bring to naught, make nothing of, wash a blackamoor white, roll the stones of Sisyphus, do by halves, lose ground, fall short of, miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays, slip, trip, stumble, make a slip, blunder, make a mess of, make a botch of, bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, limp, halt, hobble, titubate, fall, tumble, lose one's balance, fall to the ground, fall between two stools, flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock, beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall, break one's back, break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one, get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape, come to grief, go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot, lick the dust, bite the dust, be defeated, have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose, fall a prey to, succumb, not have a leg to stand on, come to nothing, end in smoke, flat out, fall to the ground, fall through, fall dead, fall stillborn, fall flat, slip through one's fingers, hang fire, miss fire, flash in the pan, collapse, topple down, go to wrack and ruin, go amiss, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack, go on ill, come off ill, turn out ill, work ill, take a wrong term, take an ugly term, take an ugly turn, take a turn for the worse, be all over with, be all up with, explode, dash one's hopes, defeat the purpose, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, go from the frying pan into the fire.

Impotence

N impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, Quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration, deliquium, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch, powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious, der kranke Mann, desirous still but impotent to rise, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

VB be impotent, not have a leg to stand on, vouloir rompre l'anguille au genou, vouloir prendre la lune avec les dents, collapse, faint, swoon, fall into a swoon, drop, go by the board, go by the wayside, go up in smoke, end in smoke, render powerless, deprive of power, disable, disenable, disarm, incapacitate, disqualify, unfit, invalidate, deaden, cramp, tie the hands, double up, prostrate, paralyze, muzzle, cripple, becripple, maim, lame, hamstring, draw the teeth of, throttle, strangle, garrotte, garrote, ratten, silence, sprain, clip the wings of, put hors de combat, spike the guns, take the wind out of one's sails, scotch the snake, put a spoke in one's wheel, break the neck, break the back, unhinge, unfit, put out of gear, unman, unnerve, enervate, emasculate, castrate, geld, alter, neuter, sterilize, fix, shatter, exhaust, weaken.

Contraction

N contraction, reduction, diminution, decrease of size, defalcation, decrement, lessening, shrinking, compaction, tabes, collapse, emaciation, attenuation, tabefaction, consumption, marasmus, atrophy, systole, neck, hourglass, condensation, compression, compactness, compendium, squeezing, strangulation, corrugation, astringency, astringents, sclerotics, contractility, compressibility, coarctation, inferiority in size, contracting, astringent, shrunk, contracted, strangulated, tabid, wizened, stunted, waning, neap, compact, unexpanded &c (expand), contractile, compressible, smaller &c (small).

VB become small, become smaller, lessen, decrease, grow less, dwindle, shrink, contract, narrow, shrivel, collapse, wither, lose flesh, wizen, fall away, waste, wane, ebb, decay, be smaller than, fall short of, not come up to, render smaller, lessen, diminish, contract, draw in, narrow, coarctate, boil down, constrict, constringe, condense, compress, squeeze, corrugate, crimp, crunch, crush, crumple up, warp, purse up, pack, squeeze, stow, pinch, tighten, strangle, cramp, dwarf, bedwarf, shorten, circumscribe, restrain, (subtraction) 38 abrade, pare, reduce, attenuate, rub down, scrape, file, file down, grind, grind down, chip, shave, shear, wear down.

Shortcoming

VB come short of, fall short of, stop short of, come short, fall short, stop short, not reach, want, keep within bounds, keep within the mark, keep within the compass, break down, stick in the mud, collapse, flat out, come to nothing, fall through, fall to the ground, cave in, end in smoke, miss the mark, fail, lose ground, miss stays.

Descent

N descent, descension, declension, declination, fall, falling, slump, drop, plunge, plummet, cadence, subsidence, collapse, lapse, downfall, tumble, slip, tilt, trip, lurch, cropper, culbute, titubation, stumble, fate of Icarus, avalanche, debacle, landslip, landslide, declivity, dip, hill, rappel, descending, descendent, decurrent, decursive, labent, deciduous, nodding to its fall, downhill, downwards, the bottom fell out.

See related words and definitions of word "collapse" in Indonesian