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melt down 1 of 2

verb

Definition of melt downnext
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

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meltdown

2 of 2

noun

1
as in tailspin

Related Words

Dissimilar Words
2
as in collapse

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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
Verb
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton was reportedly treated for a drug overdose after melting down during a livestream that caused concerns of self-harm. — Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 14 Aug. 2026 If energy stocks are one way to profit from powering the boom, another lies in the hardware that keeps those AI factories from melting down. — Camila Grigera Naón, Fortune, 11 Aug. 2026
Noun
The incident shocks audience members and sends cast and crew into a meltdown. — Matt Donnelly, Variety, 6 Sep. 2026 Maro’s meltdown continues out on the street after the heel of one of her leopard-print shoes breaks. — Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for melt down
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melt down
  1. crack
  2. tailspin
  3. collapse
  4. choke
  5. freak-out
  6. disaster
  7. break down
  8. nervous breakdown
Verb
  • Miller has attacked his opponent for a 1998 arrest in which Poindexter, a teenager at the time, allegedly tried to swallow a rock of crack cocaine during a traffic stop.
    — Christopher Buchanan, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
  • They trade glances across the table and crack jokes that don’t always need explaining; the years together have apparently given them their own shorthand and inside humor.
    — Crystal Bell, Rolling Stone, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of crack
Noun
  • With the Hollywood studio system headed for a tailspin, could now be the time for midnight movies to come out of the dark and into the marquee lights?
    — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Everything Ignore the recent tailspin to recognize what has been one of the greatest turnarounds this century.
    — Jayson Stark, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of tailspin
Noun
  • The African Union estimated that conflict resulted in around 600,000 deaths from combat, famine and the collapse of healthcare.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Their battles for influence, image and desire, in a Spain on the brink of collapse, are observed and narrated with fierce irony by Francisco de Goya, an uneasy witness who turns palace intrigue into a surprisingly contemporary mirror.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of collapse
Verb
  • He was brought to the prison infirmary, where numerous guards surrounded, punched, kicked, choked, dropped and manhandled him.
    — Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 19 Sep. 2026
  • During their time dating, Flowers’ friends and family received a video of Plummer striking Flowers, choking her and throwing her to the ground, prosecutors said.
    — Allison Kiehl, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of choke
Noun
  • The Derby’s question is quite often decided by whichever colt or filly has the racing focus and the strength not to succumb to his or her ambient freak-out.
    — Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
  • Even so, the nation’s collective freak-out should serve as a wake-up call to both the food industry and regulators.
    — Nicholas Florko, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026
Definition of freak-out
Noun
  • Los Angeles County officials aim to break ground on the new Eaton Canyon Nature Center before 2028, with plans to construct a facility that can withstand the region’s changing climate and future disasters.
    — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026
  • The Challenger disaster was of course the 1986 explosion of NASA’s eponymous space shuttle shortly after launch, which left all seven crew members dead.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of disaster
Verb
  • The Virginia Tech solutions aim to incorporate the ability to break down directly into the adhesive's molecular structure.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 Sep. 2026
  • To break down a plastic bottle, science doesn’t need a hammer, but a microscopic scalpel.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of break down
Noun
  • Gloria Steinem attributed her mother's nervous breakdown before she was born, and her treatment in mental institutions and the workforce thereafter, as key to her interest in social injustices.
    — Taijuan Moorman, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2026
  • In 1944 her parents divorced, and 10-year-old Gloria was left to take care of her mother, a once-promising journalist who struggled to combine her work with running a household and who eventually suffered a nervous breakdown.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of nervous breakdown

Browse Nearby Words

melt (away)
melt down
meltdown
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Cite this Entry

“Melt down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melt%20down. Accessed 28 Sep. 2026.

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