fall apart

British  

verb

1. to break owing to long use or poor construction

   the chassis is falling apart

2. to become disorganized and ineffective

   since you resigned, the office has fallen apart

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fall apart Idioms  

1. Collapse, break down, either physically or mentally and emotionally. For example, This chair is about to fall apart, or After his wife died, he fell apart. For synonyms for the latter usage, see come apart at the seams; go to pieces.

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Example Sentences

Then, he satirizes conservatives’ discomfort with his Blackness by sitting silently as Martin Short, playing a nervous young Republican delivering a hackneyed diatribe, shudders in his presence before scampering offstage to fall apart.

From Salon

Pahlavi and Ebadi, the human rights activist, tried to create a broad alliance after the women’s rights protests in 2022 but it fell apart over their personal disputes.

From The Wall Street Journal

Each of those stages is one more opportunity for the user to get distracted and for things to fall apart.

From The Wall Street Journal

And as her marriage and literary career fall apart, her psychiatric problems intensify.

From Los Angeles Times

Instead, on the biggest night of his young career, before an audience eager to see things it had never seen, and validate him as skating’s best ever, Malinin fell, then fell apart.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• break down
• collapse
• crumble