collapse
Americanverb (used without object)
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collapses,
present (3rd person singular)
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collapsed,
past participle, past
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collapsing
present participle
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to fall or cave in; crumble suddenly.
The roof collapsed and buried the crowd.
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to be made so that sections or parts can be folded up, as for convenient storage.
This bridge table collapses.
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to break down; come to nothing; fail.
Despite all their efforts the peace talks collapsed.
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to fall unconscious or as if unconscious or physically depleted, as from a stroke, heart attack, disease, or exhaustion.
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Pathology.
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to sink into extreme weakness.
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(of lungs) to come into an airless state.
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verb (used with object)
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collapses,
present (3rd person singular)
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collapsed,
past participle, past
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collapsing
present participle
noun
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collapses
plural
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a falling in or together.
Three miners were trapped by the collapse of the tunnel roof.
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a sudden, complete failure; breakdown.
The bribery scandal brought about the complete collapse of his industrial empire.
verb
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(intr) to fall down or cave in suddenly
the whole building collapsed
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(intr) to fail completely
his story collapsed on investigation
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(intr) to break down or fall down from lack of strength
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to fold (furniture, etc) compactly or (of furniture, etc) to be designed to fold compactly
noun
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the act or instance of suddenly falling down, caving in, or crumbling
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a sudden failure or breakdown
Usage
What does collapse mean? Collapse means to break apart suddenly, as in The rickety bridge collapsed into the river. If something collapses, it falls apart or caves in quickly and suddenly. Usually, something collapses because it’s unable to support its own weight. Collapse can also be used figuratively to mean to fail or break down, as in The party quickly collapsed when two groups started fighting with each other. Collapse can also mean to fall unconscious or to pass out, as in The marathon runner collapsed due to heat stroke. Collapse can also be used as a noun in any of these senses, as in She determined that the coins dated back to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Example: I had to rebuild my house of cards after the wobbly table caused it to collapse.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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collapsesimple
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collapsessimple
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have collapsedperfect
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has collapsedperfect
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am collapsingprogressive
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are collapsingprogressive
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is collapsingprogressive
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have been collapsingperfect progressive
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has been collapsingperfect progressive
Past
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collapsedsimple
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had collapsedperfect
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was collapsingprogressive
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were collapsingprogressive
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had been collapsingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of collapse
First recorded in 1725–35; from Latin collāpsus “fallen together,” past participle of collābī “to fall down, fall together, fall into ruins,” from col- col- 1 + lābī “to fall, slide, make a mistake”
Explanation
To collapse means to fall over, cave in, or totally crumple. After finding out that the stock market has collapsed and your investments along with it, you'd probably collapse to the ground and sob uncontrollably. From the Latin collapsus, meaning “fall together," comes our English collapse, a word that functions as both noun and verb. Empires collapse after revolutions, and your dog will eventually collapse from exhaustion if he keeps chasing his tail in circles. But if a company falls apart after the boss retires, or you have a total breakdown cramming for exams, that's a kind of collapse, too.
Vocabulary lists containing collapse
The Great Depression and The New Deal
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"A Retrieved Reformation" by O. Henry
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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:
Some had trees growing through fallen roofs, one had a wasp nest peeking out the window, and many had red diamonds indicating they were at risk of collapse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Such attacks led to the collapse of an April ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
As Amziah demonstrates during this lesson, the queen is the center of the universe and without her, the colony would collapse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
In the Castle Vale area of Birmingham, homes on the street were badly damaged in a fire, causing part of a roof on one building to collapse.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
If the earth shifted any more, the entire complex might collapse on their heads.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Overnight on Monday into Tuesday, several people several people spent the night outdoors in cities like Pereira and Cali - either due to their homes being destroyed, or fear of further collapses.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
This is especially true when the inequality persists intergenerationally: Social mobility declines and public belief in opportunity for all collapses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
"Human casualties, building collapses, road damage, fires... have been confirmed so far," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on X, adding there were also "water and power outages".
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
This detail matters because it collapses the false divide between pleasure and care.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
I am afraid that innocent Egyptians will get hurt when the machine collapses.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
After at least a dozen applicants collapsed and died during the run, possibly from the heat, the government temporarily suspended the tests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Those conditions echo the terms of a so-called memorandum of understanding which was reached in June and collapsed as fighting resumed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
It helped that, from 1982 to 2021, the rate on a 30-year mortgage collapsed from a peak of 18% to less than 3%.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hundreds of buildings — hotels, apartment blocks, mixed-use structures — collapsed or were damaged beyond repair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
His father must have collapsed back into sleep.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Rather than collapsing into an infinite singularity, it reaches a very high but finite density and then reverses direction, expanding outward.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Tattoo artist Andres Hernandez said he was worried about his family and friends, adding that he would stay awake because structures around him were "on the verge of collapsing."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it wanted to "block more offenders from getting out sooner into their sentence", but that could not happen without "risking prisons reaching capacity and collapsing".
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
With black smoke belching high into the sky, Lobga staggers some 90 seconds before collapsing in flames and a U.N. security guard rushes over blasting an extinguisher.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Sometimes I thought it was my mother’s will alone that kept the house from collapsing around us.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
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.
