meltdown
melt down
- n severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor resulting in the core melting and radiation escaping
- n a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown
there is little likelihood of a meltdown comparable to the American banking collapse in March 1933
- As banks across the world teeter amid the market meltdown, Americans and Europeans watch their governments intervene to stave off catastrophe.
- How the meltdown is an opportunity to get ourselves back on track.
- Iceland's economy is now a textbook case of macroeconomic meltdown.