train wreck

See also: trainwreck and train-wreck

English

Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, Paris, France, 1895.

Alternative forms

• trainwreck
• train-wreck (dated)

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

train wreck (plural train wrecks)

1. The aftermath of a train crash.

   Synonyms: (hobo slang) prairie meet, (railroad jargon) cornfield meet

2. (figurative) A disaster, especially one which is large, chaotic, and readily seen by public observers.

   Synonyms: catastrophe, car crash, car wreck

   • 1986 September 1, Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency: Colliding with Realities”, in Time‎^[1], archived from the original on 2008-12-21:

     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.

   • 2007, Mel Odom, Blood Evidence, →ISBN, page 168:

     "Your personal life has been, and is, a train wreck."

   • 2009, Matthue Roth, Never Mind The Goldbergs:

     “Hrmm. I see your stylist's been working nights.” He surveyed the train wreck of my hair in the rearview mirror.

3. (figurative) Someone (especially a woman) who is unbalanced and considered a mess, a disaster, one who is suffering personal ruin.
   • 2007, Donna Hogan, “blurb”, in Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Phoenix Books Incorporated, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 2016, Sady Doyle, Trainwreck, page 24:

     […] 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.

Usage notes

• In the UK, train crash is preferred for the literal sense, and car crash is more common but not exclusively used for the metaphorical sense.

Translations

wreckage of a train crash

• Icelandic: lestarbrak n
• Macedonian: возолом m (vozolom)

disaster

• Finnish: junaonnettomuus (literally), täystuho (fi)
• German: Desaster (de) n, Katastrophe (de) f
• Icelandic: lestarslys (is) n
• Japanese: 大惨事 (ja) (daisanji)
• Spanish: catástrofe (es) f, desastre (es) m

Verb

train wreck (third-person singular simple present train wrecks, present participle train wrecking, simple past and past participle train wrecked)

1. To ruin utterly and catastrophically, to cause to end in disaster.
   • 2003, Peter A. Laporta,, Ignite the Passion, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 57:

     […] basic fundamental communication steps must be achieved so not to train wreck the new employee.

   • 2011, Jaden Lane, If You Could Read My Mind, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157:

     "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."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:trainwreck.

See also

• gapers' block
• hot mess

References

• train wreck (slang): When the parts in an ensemble "collide" because the musicians are not playing together. Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary, p. 122.
• Train wreck: in jazz, when everything comes off the rails - someone misses a repeat, skips the bridge, and so on. Dolmetsch Online.

Further reading

• train wreck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “train wreck”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.