Dictionary

fall apart en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
   • England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage. 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France:
   • My old briefcase is falling apart. I'll have to buy a new one.
   • It investigated extensive damage caused by a Robeston-Westerleigh train after the brake system under one of its wagons fell apart on October 30 2017. 2020 September 9, “Network News: Robeston train troubles”, in Rail, page 6:
2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be emotionally in crisis.
   • At first I used to look at so many of us having fights or crying or staggering around messed up somehow and think, "God, are we fucked up!" but now what I think is that it was a safe place to fall apart in — one of the few. You didn't have to be politically correct or well-behaved; you could be wild or angry or miserable. 1980 December 20, Andrea F. Loewenstein, “A Personal Remembrance Of The Saints”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 22, page 14:
   • As a result of being addicted to heroin, she was falling apart.
3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To separate.
   • Others come on behind relentlessly and, in this way, it arrives before me as a tumbleweed of moving birds. Occasionally two of them, newly vanished, suddenly pop back up, all legs and squabbling beak, then they fall apart and resume the stab-and-prise feeding technique that scientists call Zirkeln. 2015 November 3, Mark Cocker, “A tumbleweed of starlings”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2015:
   • Again the mountains fall apart, and in a wide basin of corn-land and pasture lies the bourgade of La Thuile. 1887 November, Linda Villari, “Courmayeur”, in The Leisure Hour, London, page 776, column 2:
   • And when my care was moſt, by Gods pꝛouidence onely, by the burning aſunder of our ſpꝛitſaile-yard with ropes and ſaile, and the ropes about the ſpꝛitſaile-yard of the Carack, whereby we were faſt intangled, we fell apart, with burning of ſome of our ſailes which we had then on booꝛd. 1599, Nicholas Downton, “The firing and sinking of the stout and warrelike Carack called Las Cinque Llaguas, or, The fiue Wounds, by three tall Ships set foorth at the charges of the right honorable the Erle of Cumberland and his friends”, in Richard Hakluyt, The Second Volume of the Principal Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation, […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Bishop, Ralph Newbery, and Robert Barker, →OCLC, 2nd part, page 200:
   • You'll say, we've got nothing in common No common ground to start from And we're falling apart 1993 October 13, Todd Pipes, “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, in Home, performed by Deep Blue Something, published 11 July 1995:

Forms

Deriveds

fally-aparty

Synonyms

come undone (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · disintegrate (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · fall to bits (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · come apart (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · break up (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · fall to pieces (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · break apart (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · come apart at the seams (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · break (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) · crack up (be emotionally in crisis)

Translations (48)

be развалі́цца (disintegrate, break into pieces) · hu szétesik (disintegrate, break into pieces) · hu kikészül (be emotionally in crisis) · ru распада́ться (disintegrate, break into pieces) · ru развали́ться (be emotionally in crisis) · hu szétesik (be emotionally in crisis) · uk розпада́тися (disintegrate, break into pieces) · be распада́цца (disintegrate, break into pieces) · ru разва́ливаться (be emotionally in crisis) · ru разва́ливаться (disintegrate, break into pieces) · he התפרק (disintegrate, break into pieces) · nl uiteenvallen (disintegrate, break into pieces) · pl rozpaść się (disintegrate, break into pieces) · la dīlābor (disintegrate, break into pieces) · tr altüst olmak (be emotionally in crisis) · hu darabokra esik/hullik (disintegrate, break into pieces) · fr tomber en morceaux (disintegrate, break into pieces) · uk розпа́стися (disintegrate, break into pieces) · nl instorten (disintegrate, break into pieces) · enm spryngen (disintegrate, break into pieces) · hu széthullik (disintegrate, break into pieces) · uk розва́люватися (disintegrate, break into pieces) · es deshacerse (disintegrate, break into pieces) · pl rozpadać się (disintegrate, break into pieces) · he התמוטט (be emotionally in crisis) · es desintegrarse (disintegrate, break into pieces) · hu összeomlik (be emotionally in crisis) · es venirse abajo (be emotionally in crisis) · ota پارچهلانمق (disintegrate, break into pieces) · pt cair aos pedaços (disintegrate, break into pieces) · fi murtua (be emotionally in crisis) · fi hajota (disintegrate, break into pieces) · nl instorten (be emotionally in crisis) · es desvencijarse (disintegrate, break into pieces) · be распа́сціся (disintegrate, break into pieces) · nl uit elkaar vallen (disintegrate, break into pieces) · de auseinanderfallen (disintegrate, break into pieces) · uk розвали́тися (disintegrate, break into pieces) · he מט לנפול (disintegrate, break into pieces) · it andare a rotoli (be emotionally in crisis) · ckb لەناوچوون (be emotionally in crisis) · es despedazarse (disintegrate, break into pieces) · ru распа́сться (disintegrate, break into pieces) · be разва́львацца (disintegrate, break into pieces) · it cadere a pezzi (disintegrate, break into pieces) · hu szétjön (disintegrate, break into pieces) · de zusammenbrechen (be emotionally in crisis) · ru развали́ться (disintegrate, break into pieces)