collapse

Academic Word List, sublist 10.

About 13.17 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. verb To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in.

   The wall collapsed when it was hit by the wrecking ball.

2. verb To cease to function due to a sudden breakdown; to fail suddenly and completely.

   Pyramid schemes tend to generate profits for a while and then collapse.

3. verb To fold compactly.
4. verb To conflate, to ignore the distinctions between.
5. verb In a hierarchical list (such as a directory tree or table of contents), to hide the subentries of (an entry).
6. verb To suffer a batting collapse.

   Immediately after his wicket the team collapsed for 69.

7. verb To cause something to collapse.

   Hurry up and collapse the tent so we can get moving.

8. verb To pass out and fall to the floor or ground, as from exhaustion or other illness; to faint.

   The exhausted singer collapsed on stage and had to be taken to the hospital.

Similar words

crumble fall in flop tumble break break down burst break up crack crash

Often followed by

of and in into the is or was on

Word family

collapsed collapses collapsible collapsing