as in to crack
to yield to mental or emotional stress
rather than melt down, the team strengthened their resolve and ended up winning the game
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
1
as in tailspin
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
2
as in collapse
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of melt down
Chris Isidore, CNN Money, 12 Dec. 2025
Explosions near the site had already damaged a high-voltage power line; Ukraine feared the failure of cooling systems that prevent nuclear fuel from melting down.
—Robin Wright, New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2025
Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2026
Both Powell and the Biden White House misread the COVID recession as similar to the 2008 mortgage meltdown.
—Roger Lowenstein, The Atlantic, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for melt down
Verb
Wildly unpopular, of the 1 million coins minted, nearly 860,000 were returned to the Mint and melted down, according to the American Numismatic Association.
—Chris Isidore, CNN Money, 12 Dec. 2025
Explosions near the site had already damaged a high-voltage power line; Ukraine feared the failure of cooling systems that prevent nuclear fuel from melting down.
—Robin Wright, New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2025
Noun
Not long after the Tucker-Dodgers news broke, the artist formerly known as Twitter went into meltdown with fans of 29 other teams saying the Dodgers are ruining the sport by buying all the best players.
—Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2026
Both Powell and the Biden White House misread the COVID recession as similar to the 2008 mortgage meltdown.
—Roger Lowenstein, The Atlantic, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for melt down
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melt down
Verb
-
A certain perception of Arsenal’s mental frailties persists, as if this is not just the same team that faltered in the final stages in 2022-23 but the same one that habitually cracked under pressure in the later years of Wenger’s tenure.—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
30 Jan. 2026
-
Directed by Stacey Lee and produced by Jon Watts, the three-part documentary series (inspired by the iHeart Media podcast of the same name) chronicles a high school sociology class trying to crack a local cold case.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Throughout Arizona’s tailspin, Gannon stuck to the blueprint, preaching process and patience during moments that publicly demanded more.—
Doug Haller,
New York Times,
5 Jan. 2026
-
Despite being a longtime socialist, Rodríguez also had a reputation as a technocrat and turned to market-friendly reforms to try to pull the economy out of its tailspin.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
4 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Video of the collapse, which shows the structure tumbling like a house of cards, quickly spread like wildfire online.—
Jasmine Baehr,
FOXNews.com,
31 Jan. 2026
-
Even collapse felt easier in motion than rotting in that cabin.—
Nick Dothée,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
This time, Carr’s freak-out was an attempt to stretch the FCC’s equal-time rules to apply to talk shows — both late night and daytime.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
23 Jan. 2026
-
For now, though, Chang is in her bubble up north and witnessing most of the freak-outs remotely and not in person.—
Jessica Radloff,
Glamour,
14 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
One compelling example in the education space that Parker-Holder and Rivas described was allowing students to get a sense of what working in different professions might be like, such as assisting in disaster recovery.—
Abhimanyu Ghoshal,
New Atlas,
30 Jan. 2026
-
The action also authorizes the use of disaster emergency funds and allows the OEM to mobilize state resources, make contracts and awards using emergency procurement procedures and encumber and expend funds as determined by the director of the OEM.—
Alexandra Koch,
FOXNews.com,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
As for this devastated, miserable, freaked out, walking nervous breakdown of a man?—
Stephen Schaefer,
Boston Herald,
25 Nov. 2025
-
The 1970s were Hollywood’s nervous breakdown.—
Remy Blumenfeld,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Kenya choked under the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, who ruled from 1978 to 2002.—
Binaifer Nowrojee,
Time,
30 Jan. 2026
-
Just weeks after heroically saving a neighbor’s choking 1-year-old girl, an NYPD officer was at it again, saving the life of a 2-year-old boy who had stopped breathing in his Bronx home.—
Barry Williams,
New York Daily News,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
See video … LISTEN Tune in for a breakdown of new polling showing voters uneasy with aggressive ICE tactics and that the White House is not focused enough on inflation and affordability.—
,
FOXNews.com,
30 Jan. 2026
-
Schnell said his department has repeatedly asked DHS to provide underlying data, methodologies or jurisdictional breakdowns but has received no response.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Melt down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melt%20down. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
