train wreck

noun

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Definition of train wreck

1 : a violent and destructive crash involving a train

2 : an utter disaster or mess : a disastrous calamity or source of trouble

Six months later, with Washington facing a political train wreck in Iraq, whom did it call? The United Nations.
—Fareed Zakaria

The train wreck that was Florence Ballard could not be hidden anymore. … Those shows went on without a hitch, but with Ballard progressively drinking harder, disaster awaited them as they trekked from Miami to play several college dates across the South.
—Mark Ballard

… to create what is termed on Capitol Hill a train wreck—a budget crisis so awful that the President would have to seriously negotiate, and yield on taxes.
—Elizabeth Drew

Recent Examples of train wreck from the Web

Consider that the most memorable Oscar moment of the past decade was a train wreck that compromised the dignity of two venerable movie stars and messed with the feelings of two excellent young filmmakers.

— a. o. scott and manohla dargis, New York Times, "Dear Movie Industry, We Have Thoughts," 2 May 2018
The description also fits Johnny Manziel, who not only didn't 'wreck this league' as promised, but was a train wreck here.

— mary kay cabot, cleveland.com, "Baker Mayfield: 'I'm not going to try to prove that not I'm Johnny' Manziel," 27 Apr. 2018
For the Air Force, now is the calm before the budgetary storm—or, to use a more colorful metaphor—the calm before the train wreck.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "New Air Force Budget Cuts Down the F-35 Fleet," 9 Feb. 2016
The previous version his friends saw was a slow motion train wreck.

— david sturm, Howard County Times, "The Comeback Kid," 24 May 2018
That way, any missteps can be part of a learning experience instead of a stock-market train wreck.

— michael hiltzik, latimes.com, "Snap Inc. again shows why it should not have become a public company," 2 May 2018
In short, the trip, in the picture-perfect world of outdoors magazines, was a train wreck.

— steve meyer, Anchorage Daily News, "An outdoors writer gets his first assignment, and it yields an unexpected tale," 2 May 2018
Casey’’ Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad died in a train wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying at the controls in a successful effort to save the passengers.

— BostonGlobe.com, "This day in history," 29 Apr. 2018
Somehow, Silicon Valley hasn’t learned from the train wreck that was Theranos.

— rachel becker, The Verge, "Verily’s ‘exploding micro-needles’ are a fix for a problem that doesn’t exist," 18 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'train wreck.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.