collapse

Formscollapses, collapsing, collapsed

Pluralcollapses

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To break apart and fall down suddenly, as a structure giving way; to cave in.

   Engineers warned the bridge might collapse under the weight of modern traffic.

   Several mine shafts collapsed during the earthquake, trapping workers below.

   Similarcrumble, fall, buckle, topple, subside

   Note

   Here is the root image the figurative uses build on. English took the verb from Latin collāpsus, the past participle of collābor. Giving way need not mean shattering: Samuel Maunder's The Scientific and Literary Treasury (1843) says a balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it, so the thing falls in on itself. In this sense the verb takes no object, and its causative partner supplies one.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To break down without warning and stop working altogether.

   Without emergency funding, the hospital system could collapse within months.

   The peace negotiations collapsed when neither side would compromise on borders.

   Similarfail, fold, founder, crumble, disintegrate

   Oppositesucceed, thrive, flourish

   Note

   The figurative extension of the physical caving-in: what falls here is a system rather than a structure, such as a pyramid scheme, a round of talks or a whole civilization. Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988) applies it to earlier societies and warns that industrial ones obey the same principles. The verb stays intransitive; to bring such a failure about, English turns to the causative use.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To lose consciousness and fall to the floor or ground, as from exhaustion or illness; to faint.

   Exhausted hikers can collapse from heatstroke on exposed trails.

   The singer collapsed onstage midway through the second act.

   Similarfaint, swoon, drop, fall

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process of falling down, caving in, or failing suddenly and completely.

   Investigators traced the building's collapse to corroded support beams.

   The collapse of the regime came faster than any diplomat had predicted.

   Similarfailure, breakdown, downfall, fall, crash

   Oppositerise, recovery

   Note

   Countable when it names one event, as in "a terrible collapse" or "a dramatic collapse", and uncountable when it names the process. The preposition shows what gave way. You speak of the collapse of a building or a regime, but a collapse in a quantity, as in Paul Clifton's 2021 "collapse in demand for rail and air travel". Sport uses it freely too, for a team throwing away a winning position.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To cause something to fall down, cave in, or fold compactly.

   The demolition crew collapsed the stadium's upper deck in a controlled blast.

   Paramedics collapse the gurney's legs before sliding it into the ambulance.

   Similardemolish, flatten, fold, topple

   Oppositeerect, unfold, extend

   Note

   The causative use, where someone does the collapsing. Its object is often a thing built to fold down rather than to fall: a tent to be packed away, or a pram that Paul Clifton's 2023 report on family travel shows parents frantically trying to fold among grumpy commuters. It pairs naturally with the folding sense, though demolition crews also use it of whole structures.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To fold compactly, as into a flatter or more portable form.

   The telescope's tripod collapses to fit inside a backpack.

   These market stalls collapse within minutes once the vendors finish for the day.

   Similarfold, telescope, retract

   Oppositeexpand, extend, unfold

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To hide the nested entries under an item in an outline, folder tree, or table of contents, leaving only the item showing.

   Collapse the sidebar's project folders to focus on the file you're editing.

   The reader collapsed every chapter heading to scan the table of contents quickly.

   Similarfold, hide

   Oppositeexpand

   Note

   A computing verb that rarely appears without its opposite, expand, and interfaces offer the two side by side. It is transitive, and its object is the parent item: you collapse the folder or the chapter heading, not the files or subsections beneath it. Nothing is removed. The hidden items stay where they are and come back into view when the parent is expanded again.

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   In cricket, to suffer a batting collapse, losing a string of wickets in quick succession for very few runs.

   England collapsed from 200 for two to 230 all out before tea.

   Sides batting last on a worn pitch often collapse against quality spin.

   Similarcrumble, fold, capitulate

   Note

   Cricket uses the verb for a whole batting side, not for one batter. The team collapses, losing its wickets in a cluster. The final total follows with for, as in "collapsed for 69", much as a side is bowled out for a score. The same event as a noun is the shortened "batting collapse".

9. 9
   nouncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of batting collapse.

   India's collapse from 180 for three left the bowlers with too few runs to defend.

   Commentators sensed a collapse coming as soon as the second new ball began to swing.

   Note

   Cricket clips batting collapse to a single word, just as the cricket verb stands alone. The full phrase names a succession of batsmen or batswomen getting out without adding many runs. The short form keeps that meaning whenever the scorecard is the subject. It counts like any event noun, so a series can bring one collapse or several collapses.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    In automata theory, a constant or one-valued function that maps every input to the same single output, particularly one whose application causes a reset.

    Applying the collapse moves the automaton to its reset state regardless of its current configuration.

    The machine's transition table defines a collapse that maps each state to state zero.

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