train wreck

== English == === Alternative forms === trainwreck, train-wreck (dated) === Pronunciation === === Noun === train wreck (plural train wrecks) A train crash. Synonyms: (hobo slang) prairie meet, (railroad jargon) cornfield meet The wreckage resulting from a train crash. (figurative) A disaster, especially one which is large, chaotic, and readily seen by public observers. Synonyms: catastrophe, car crash, car wreck (figurative) Someone who is unbalanced and considered a mess, a disaster, one who is suffering personal ruin. ==== Usage notes ==== In the UK, train crash is preferred for the literal sense, and car crash is more common but not exclusively used for the metaphorical sense. ==== Translations ==== === Verb === train wreck (third-person singular simple present train wrecks, present participle train wrecking, simple past and past participle train wrecked) (informal, idiomatic, transitive) To ruin utterly and catastrophically, to cause to end in disaster. For more quotations using this term, see Citations:trainwreck. === See also === gapers' block hot mess === References === train wreck (slang): When the parts in an ensemble "collide" because the musicians are not playing together. Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary, p. 122. Train wreck: in jazz, when everything comes off the rails - someone misses a repeat, skips the bridge, and so on. Dolmetsch Online. === Further reading === train wreck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia “train wreck”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.