fall apart

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

fall apart (third-person singular simple present falls apart, present participle falling apart, simple past fell apart, past participle fallen apart) (intransitive)

1. To disintegrate, to break into pieces.

   My old briefcase is falling apart. I'll have to buy a new one.

   • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2024 September 9, “Network News: Robeston train troubles”, in Rail, page 6:

     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.

2. (idiomatic) To be emotionally in crisis.

   As a result of being addicted to heroin, she was falling apart.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• fally-aparty

Translations

disintegrate, break into pieces

• Belarusian: распада́цца impf (raspadácca), распа́сціся pf (raspáscisja), разва́львацца impf (razválʹvacca), развалі́цца (razvalícca)
• Dutch: uiteenvallen (nl) (e.g. books), uit elkaar vallen (e.g. books), instorten (nl) (e.g. buildings)
• Finnish: hajota (fi)
• French: tomber en morceaux
• German: auseinanderfallen
• Hebrew: התפרק (hitparék)
• Hungarian: szétesik (hu), szétjön, széthullik (hu), darabokra esik/hullik
• Italian: cadere a pezzi
• Latin: dīlābor
• Middle English: spryngen
• Polish: rozpadać się (pl) impf, rozpaść się (pl) pf
• Portuguese: cair aos pedaços
• Russian: распада́ться (ru) impf (raspadátʹsja), распа́сться (ru) pf (raspástʹsja), разва́ливаться (ru) impf (razválivatʹsja), развали́ться (ru) pf (razvalítʹsja)
• Spanish: despedazarse (es), desintegrarse (es), deshacerse (es), desvencijarse (es)
• Ukrainian: розпада́тися impf (rozpadátysja), розпа́стися pf (rozpástysja), розва́люватися impf (rozváljuvatysja), розвали́тися pf (rozvalýtysja)

be emotionally in crisis

• Dutch: instorten (nl)
• Finnish: murtua (fi)
• German: zusammenbrechen (de)
• Hebrew: התמוטט (he) (hitmotét)
• Hungarian: szétesik (hu), kikészül (hu), összeomlik (hu)
• Italian: andare a rotoli
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لەناوچوون (lenawçûn)

• Russian: разва́ливаться (ru) impf (razválivatʹsja), развали́ться (ru) pf (razvalítʹsja)
• Spanish: venirse abajo (es)
• Turkish: altüst olmak (tr)