falling apart

Verb

fall apart (third-person singular simple present falls apart, present participle falling apart, simple past fell apart, past participle fallen apart)

1. (intransitive) To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
   • My old briefcase is falling apart. I'll have to buy a new one.

   Synonyms:

   break, break apart, break up, come apart, come apart at the seams, come undone, disintegrate, fall to bits, fall to pieces

2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be emotionally in crisis.
   • As a result of being addicted to heroin, she was falling apart.

   Synonyms:

   crack up

3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To separate.
   • And when my care was moſt, by Gods pꝛouidence onely, by the burning aſunder of our ſpꝛitſaile-yard with ropes and ſaile, and the ropes about the ſpꝛitſaile-yard of the Carack, whereby we were faſt intangled, we fell apart, with burning of ſome of our ſailes which we had then on booꝛd.1599, Nicholas Downton, “The firing and sinking of the stout and warrelike Carack called Las Cinque Llaguas, or, The fiue Wounds, by three tall Ships set foorth at the charges of the right honorable...