train wreck
Americannoun
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an accident in which a train or trains are severely damaged.
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Slang. a person who has experienced a personal failure, disaster, etc.
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Slang. a disastrous situation, occurrence, or process.
His football career has been a train wreck.
noun
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an incident in which a train is severely damaged
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informal something or someone that has suffered ruin or calamity
Etymology
Origin of train wreck
First recorded in 1870–75
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.
The challenge is that this is the train wreck you can see coming.
From Barron's • May 15, 2026
"This company has exhibited all of the characteristics of a train wreck," said Mark Cohen, the former head of retail studies at Columbia Business School.
From BBC • Jan. 9, 2026
That century-old pact and the ingrained system of water rights, combined with water that costs next to nothing, Gold said, lead to “this slow-motion train wreck that is the Colorado right now.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 13, 2025
Off the coast of Vancouver Island, in the Cascadia region, scientists have now seen that "train wreck" unfolding.
From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2025
I thought Ocean would wake up, dizzy and destabilized by this emotional train wreck to discover that it hadn’t been worth it, actually; that I hadn’t been worth it.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
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.
