Dictionary

train wreck en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. A train crash.
2. The wreckage resulting from a train crash.
3. (figuratively) A disaster, especially one which is large, chaotic, and readily seen by public observers.
   • "Your personal life has been, and is, a train wreck." 2007, Mel Odom, Blood Evidence, →ISBN, page 168:
   • There is a feeling in Washington that we are gathering at the side of the track to watch a gigantic economic train wreck one of these days. 1986 September 1, Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency: Colliding with Realities”, in Time, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2008:
   • “Hrmm. I see your stylist's been working nights.” He surveyed the train wreck of my hair in the rearview mirror. 2009, Matthue Roth, Never Mind The Goldbergs:
4. (figuratively) Someone who is unbalanced and considered a mess, a disaster, one who is suffering personal ruin.
   • She may have been a train wreck, but she was a train wreck people still can't seem to get enough of. The sordid but fascinating story of her vicious, no-holds-barred battle with life is one of the most gripping, sex-soaked biographies in years. 2007, Donna Hogan, “blurb”, in Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Phoenix Books Incorporated, →ISBN:
   • […] women, by and large, do not like themselves very much: their ambition gaps, their orgasm gaps, their imposter syndrome, […] their trainwrecks, and their need for trainwrecks; the enduring, self-loathing need to find someone about whom they can say well, at least I'm not that girl. 2016, Sady Doyle, Trainwreck, page 24:

Forms

Synonyms

car wreck · cornfield meet · prairie meet · catastrophe · car crash

Translations (10)

de Desaster (disaster) · is lestarbrak (wreckage of a train crash) · de Katastrophe (disaster) · ja 大惨事 (disaster) · fi täystuho (disaster) · fi junaonnettomuus (disaster) · es catástrofe (disaster) · is lestarslys (disaster) · mk возолом (wreckage of a train crash) · es desastre (disaster)

train wreck en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, informal, transitive) To ruin utterly and catastrophically, to cause to end in disaster.
   • "I want this, too, I want you. Like really want you more than anything I've wanted in a long time. But if you force it, you're going to train wreck the whole thing in a fiery mess over a steep cliff with jagged rocks below." 2011, Jaden Lane, If You Could Read My Mind, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157:
   • […] basic fundamental communication steps must be achieved so not to train wreck the new employee. 2003, Peter A. Laporta,, Ignite the Passion, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 57:

Forms

Relateds

gapers' block · hot mess