meltdown

See also: melt down

English

Etymology

From the verb phrase melt down.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: melt‧down

Noun

meltdown (plural meltdowns)

1. Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor resulting in the core melting and radiation escaping.

   Four years have passed since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but the grim legacy of the Soviet catastrophe is still unfolding. [1]

2. A situation being likened to a nuclear meltdown; a crisis.
   • 2001, James Wickham, Perv Spoof Bosses Axe Wrestling (in The Daily Star)

     Channel 4 switchboards went into meltdown this week when viewers called to complain about a Brass Eye programme on child sex.

   Computer engineers were at a loss last night to explain why the Government had been hit by arguably the worst electronic meltdown in the history of Whitehall. [2]

3. (figuratively) A tantrum.

Synonyms

• (tantrum): see Thesaurus:tantrum

Derived terms

• gypsy meltdown
• market meltdown
• mutational meltdown
• nuclear meltdown
• techno-meltdown

 

Translations

severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor

• Arabic: اِنْصِهَار نَوَوِيّ m (inṣihār nawawiyy)
• Armenian: ռեակտորի միջուկի հալում (ṙeaktori miǰuki halum), մելտդաուն (meltdaun)
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 堆芯熔毀／堆芯熔毁, 堆芯熔毁 (duīxīn rónghuǐ)

• Czech: roztavení reaktoru n
• Danish: nedsmeltning c
• Dutch: kernsmelting (nl) f
• Finnish: (reaktoriytimen) sulaminen
• French: fusion du cœur d’un réacteur nucléaire f
• German: Kernschmelze (de) f
• Greek: τήξη (el) f (tíxi)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: नाभिकीय गलाव (nābhikīya galāv)
• Hungarian: zónaolvadás
• Italian: fusione del nocciolo f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 炉心熔融 (ろしんようゆう, roshin-yōyū), メルトダウン (merutodaun)
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 노심 용해 (nosim yonghae)
• Persian: ذوب‌شدن سوخت هسته‌ای
• Polish: stopienie rdzenia reaktora jądrowego n
• Portuguese: derretimento nuclear m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: разруше́ние и́з-за расплавле́ния n (razrušénije íz-za rasplavlénija), расплавле́ние (ru) n (rasplavlénije), разруше́ние акти́вной зоны я́дерного реа́ктора n (razrušénije aktívnoj zóny jádernovo reáktora), мелтда́ун (ru) m (mɛltdáun)
• Serbo-Croatian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: fusión de núcleo (es) f
• Swedish: härdsmälta (sv) c
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can

situation being likened to a nuclear meltdown

• Danish: nedsmeltning c
• Finnish: romahdus (fi)
• Portuguese: catástrofe (pt) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: встря́ска (ru) f (vstrjáska)
• Spanish: escándalo (es) m, dilema (es) m, explosión (es) f

See also

• China syndrome