nosedive
Americannoun
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a plunge of an aircraft with the forward part pointing downward.
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a sudden sharp drop or rapid decline.
a time when market values were in a nosedive.
verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of nosedive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“They took this nosedive, and it seemed inexplicable,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
This week, their relationship took a nosedive as tensions flared over the war and a personal jibe directed at Macron.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
Elite LIV Golf players have seen their world rankings nosedive, complicating their ability to qualify for golf's four major championships, whose fields are largely determined by rankings.
From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026
The number of new jobs created this year has taken a nosedive, and the unemployment rate has crept up to a four-year high of 4.6%.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two- hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Newton notes the Russell 3000 McClellan Summation Index — a breadth indicator — is sitting near its June peak and while, drifting sideways, hasn’t nosedived, which is often the precursor to a bigger downturn.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Shares in Shutterstock nosedived premarket, while Getty’s also fell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
At one stage, it looked as if Chelsea would be in the Champions League, but their form has nosedived to such an extent that they might not make Europe via the league at all.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
More than a million Cubans have left the island in recent years, and birth rates have nosedived.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
The plane suddenly nosedived as it travelled between Cancun in Mexico and Newark in the United States, and pilots had to land in Tampa, Florida.
From Barron's ● Nov. 29, 2025
But over the next three years funding slid back to pre-pandemic levels, falling to $23 billion in 2024, then nosediving in 2025, when healthcare VCs raised an estimated $7 billion, according to SVB.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
Digital-asset funds experienced a significant downturn in the fourth quarter, with the average fund nosediving 19.2%.
From Barron's ● Jan. 8, 2026
The cryptocoin $Libra quickly rose in value before nosediving, causing severe losses for the majority of people who had invested in it.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2025
Only this time, most of the butterflies had died inside the envelopes by the time the guests opened them — and the few that survived ended up nosediving into the fountain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
Wall Street recoiled over the inflation report last Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average nosediving more than 1,200 points on fears that the Fed would have to keep up with its supersized hikes.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2022
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
