meltdown

[melt-doun] /ˈmɛltˌdaʊn/
noun
1.
the melting of a significant portion of a nuclear-reactor core due to inadequate cooling of the fuel elements, a condition that could lead to the escape of radiation.
2.
a quickly developing breakdown or collapse: a bond-market meltdown;
the meltdown of a marriage.
3.
Informal. a sudden loss of control over one’s feelings or behavior:
My toddler had a meltdown when I tried to leave the house.
Origin
1960-65; noun use of verb phrase melt down
Examples from the web for meltdown
  • It's not a movie for the post-meltdown age but one for the post-9/11 age of devil-may-care vengeance.
  • Many of these kids have no formal education, because their countries were in a complete meltdown when they were growing up.
  • Virtually anything that caused stress disoriented them, and they quickly descended into pre-meltdown conditions.
  • More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown.
  • The department had clearly had a meltdown and had a huge migration.
  • Add to the mix incentive pay in the form of commissions, and you have a recipe for a full-on educational meltdown.
  • Grandiose visions of the future often evaporate in the heat of an economic meltdown, and this one has its share of skeptics.
  • Tenure was already weak before the financial meltdown.
  • If you can get them out of whatever meltdown they're in, they are their normal sweet selves.
  • Neither format will affect the underlying problem that caused the financial meltdown.
British Dictionary definitions for meltdown

meltdown

/ˈmɛltˌdaʊn/
noun
1.
(in a nuclear reactor) the melting of the fuel rods as a result of a defect in the cooling system, with the possible escape of radiation into the environment
2.
(informal) a sudden disastrous failure with potential for widespread harm, as a stock-exchange crash
3.
(informal) the process or state of irreversible breakdown or decline: the community is slowly going into meltdown
Word Origin and History for meltdown
n.

by 1937 in the ice-cream industry; by 1956 in reference to a nuclear reactor, from verbal phrase, from melt (v.) + down (adv.). Metaphoric extension since 1979.

meltdown in Science
meltdown
  (mělt'doun')   
Severe overheating of a nuclear reactor core, resulting in melting of the core and escape of radiation.
meltdown in Culture

meltdown definition


The most serious accident that can occur at a nuclear reactor. In a meltdown, the radioactive material in the reactor becomes very hot, melting some or all of the fuel in the reactor. A meltdown may or may not be followed by the release of radioactive material to the environment. A partial meltdown, with very little external radiation, occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979; a complete meltdown happened at Chernobyl in 1986.

Slang definitions & phrases for meltdown

meltdown

noun

A disaster: They are facing a credibility meltdown/The Glenn campaign has achieved almost total meltdown

[1970s+; fr the nuclear power-plant disaster in which the core of radioactive material melts down into the earth below, the term found by 1963]


meltdown in Technology


network meltdown