Dictionary

crash out en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From crash + out. References online to the slang sense go as far back as a Twitter post from 2013, attributed to YoungBoy Never Broke Again, a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Popularized by a December 2023 viral TikTok video. The earliest clear printed use turns up in a 1940 crime novel called High Sierra by W. R. Burnett. A character sits thinking about escape and says: All I thought about was a crash out. I tried it once.

Meanings

1. (Internet, qualifier:African-American Vernacular) A reckless individual, often with nothing to lose; a person prone to crashing out.
   • calling all crashouts in atlanta, please put this nigga in a blender 🙏🏾 2024 February 8, @JrMoneyGetting, Twitter, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2024:
   • Niggas really be crash outs wit no motion biggest life asset be a pistol that shit crazy 2023 February 14, @1lonerlifestyle, Twitter, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2024:
2. (Internet, qualifier:African-American Vernacular) An instance of being uncontrollably angry or upset.
   • Ms. Toro, a 30-year-old project manager, documented her “crash out” in a video that has raced to more than 600,000 views, joining the ranks of countless TikTok users who have employed some iteration of the phrase to describe their burst of emotions — and at times, intentional overreactions. 2025 June 17, Nicole Stock, “Why Is Everybody ‘Crashing Out’?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Jun 2025:

Forms

crash out en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From crash + out. References online to the slang sense go as far back as a Twitter post from 2013, attributed to YoungBoy Never Broke Again, a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Popularized by a December 2023 viral TikTok video. The earliest clear printed use turns up in a 1940 crime novel called High Sierra by W. R. Burnett. A character sits thinking about escape and says: All I thought about was a crash out. I tried it once.

Meanings

1. (informal) To fall asleep from exhaustion.
   • We walked by Eric's room across the hall and I thought maybe he was still up, or maybe crashed out? 2006, G. S. Morrison, A Rock and Roll Fantasy, page 85:
   • He crashed out after a long day of work.
2. (informal) To terminate with an unhandled error; to crash.
   • Harry didn't know why but the computer crashed out all of a sudden.
3. (informal) To be eliminated from a competition.
   • He crashed out at the second round of the tournament.
   • After 23 miles, John crashed out of his third attempt at the elusive 40-mile world track record, unable to do any more than clutch his knotted stomach as Lynn Hughes, the vibrant son of a Welsh miner, swept in with a new British best of 4 hours. 2011, Bill Jones, The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop:
   • They joined Sunderland and Middlesbrough in crashing out of the competition at the third-round stage this season. 2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC, archived from the original on 29 Feb 2012:
4. (transitive) To produce or create rapidly; to bang out.
   • Pasternak told me that she and Hewitt “met halfway between Devon and London in a field, and he said, ‘Diana wants the story told but with two conditions. One, it has to come out before Morton’s second book, and two, it has to be a love story.’ ” To oblige her, Pasternak says she crashed it out in five weeks. 2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2022:
5. To rapidly precipitate.
   • A supersaturated solution is unstable; solute molecules may crash out of solution given the slightest perturbation. 2015, John T. Moore, Chris Hren, Peter J. Mikulecky, U Can: Chemistry I For Dummies, page 267:
   • These solutions, however, were unstable and immediately crashed out. 2006, Adam M. Schwartzberg, Synthesis, Optical Properties, and Sensing with Gold Nanoparticles, Aggregates, and Hollow Gold Nanospheres, page 135:
   • One of the biggest challenges of in vitro assays is dealing with compounds that have low aqueous solubility that crash out of solution when they are added to the assay buffer or culture medium. 2013, Jie Jack Li, E. J. Corey, Drug Discovery: Practices, Processes, and Perspectives:
6. (slang) To become uncontrollably angry or upset; to rage, snap.
   • Losing six games in a row was enough to make my friend start crashing out.
   • But instead of crashing out over, say, Haitian immigrants allegedly eating cats and dogs in Ohio, Piker’s guests will argue over things like “What’s the best cheese?” or “Is Five Guys a fast-food restaurant?” 2024 September 18, Levi Winslow, “Streamer Hasan Piker Is Twitch’s Foremost Debate Lord”, in Complex, archived from the original on 22 Sep 2024:
   • “It’s kind of this forewarning of like, ‘Hey you’re annoying me, I’m going to crash out,’” he said, “or like, ‘This project I’m working on is going to make me crash out.’” 2025 June 17, Nicole Stock, “Why Is Everybody ‘Crashing Out’?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Jun 2025:
7. (US, slang) To break out of a prison.
8. (Internet, qualifier:African-American Vernacular) To act out recklessly and violently, often in a way that leads to self-destruction or serious consequences, typically in enraged reaction to something.

Forms

Synonyms

snap · throw a fit · fly off the handle · lose one's cool · go apeshit · erupt · crash

Translations (13)

de ausrasten (to snap) · de durchdrehen (to snap) · nn verta rasande (to snap) · fr péter les plombs (to snap) · de an die Decke gehen (to snap) · de aufbrausen (to snap) · cmn 崩潰 /崩溃 (to snap) · nn verta forbanna (to snap) · nn gå av skaftet (to snap) · cmn 抓狂 (to snap) · nn klikka (to snap) · de überschnappen (to snap) · cmn 瘋掉 /疯掉 (to snap)