fall apart

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fall apart

1. (intransitive) To disintegrate.

   My old briefcase is falling apart. I'll have to buy a new one.

   • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France‎:

     England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage.

2. (idiomatic) To be emotionally in crisis.

   As a result of being addicted to heroin, she was falling apart.

• (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state): break, break apart, break up, come apart, come apart at the seams, disintegrate, fall to bits, fall to pieces, come undone
• (be emotionally in crisis): crack up