as in breakdown
a mental or nervous collapse
you're going to have a nervous breakdown if you keep up that pace
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Recent Examples of nervous breakdown
Lane is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
—
Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2025
Fawlty Towers established Scales' role as a TV darling; the actress starred as the wife of Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese), a rude hotel manager who forever appeared to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
—Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Oct. 2025
Schmitt suffers a nervous breakdown after his arrogance (and Webber’s long leash on the residency program) leads to him killing a podcaster on the operating table and these two break up again.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2025
That character is Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), a Hollywood star recovering from a recent nervous breakdown and attending a garish eco-friendly charity party for the super-super-rich that’s being held in a fantastically austere Greek mine.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 13 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nervous breakdown
Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2025
Fawlty Towers established Scales' role as a TV darling; the actress starred as the wife of Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese), a rude hotel manager who forever appeared to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
—Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Oct. 2025
Schmitt suffers a nervous breakdown after his arrogance (and Webber’s long leash on the residency program) leads to him killing a podcaster on the operating table and these two break up again.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2025
That character is Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), a Hollywood star recovering from a recent nervous breakdown and attending a garish eco-friendly charity party for the super-super-rich that’s being held in a fantastically austere Greek mine.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 13 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nervous breakdown
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nervous breakdown
breakdown
Noun
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Companies continued to publicly share their demographics for years after Jackson’s first push, and Jackson followed up with varying success, asking for more data on board and C-suite diversity, gender and race breakdowns of suppliers and contractors, and employee retention.—
Jacqueline Munis,
Fortune,
19 Feb. 2026
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Sheriff Marian Brown declined to explain what is being done to prevent similar breakdowns.—
Dallas Morning News,
Dallas Morning News,
19 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Nervous breakdown.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nervous%20breakdown. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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