go to pieces

Idioms  

1. Experience an emotional or mental breakdown, as in When she heard of his death she went to pieces. [Late 1800s] For a synonym, see fall apart, def. 2.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

go to pieces

"You might go to pieces afterwards. But on the scene, you've got to be calm and collected, to get on and do the job that you're there to do."

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2022

But when temperatures reach into triple digits, people go to pieces.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2017

“Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” Lincoln asked a special session of Congress, that July.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 9, 2017

We never really worried that things would go to pieces the way they ultimately did.

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2011

“I do miss them. They were good people. Not huggers or the types to go to pieces over loving someone. But good people.”

From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt