train wreck

plural train wrecks · alternative trainwreck · alternative train-wreck

1. A train crash.

   Synonyms: prairie meet, cornfield meet

2. The wreckage resulting from a train crash.
3. figurativelyA disaster, especially one which is large, chaotic, and readily seen by public observers.

   "Your personal life has been, and is, a train wreck."

   2007, Mel Odom, Blood Evidence, →ISBN, page 168

   2 more examples

   There is a feeling in Washington that we are gathering at the side of the track to watch a gigantic economic train wreck one of these days.

   1986 September 1, Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency: Colliding with Realities”, in Time, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2008

   “Hrmm. I see your stylist's been working nights.” He surveyed the train wreck of my hair in the rearview mirror.

   2009, Matthue Roth, Never Mind The Goldbergs

   Synonyms: catastrophe, car crash, car wreck

4. figurativelySomeone who is unbalanced and considered a mess, a disaster, one who is suffering personal ruin.

   She may have been a train wreck, but she was a train wreck people still can't seem to get enough of. The sordid but fascinating story of her vicious, no-holds-barred battle with life is one of the most gripping, sex-soaked biographies in years.

   2007, Donna Hogan, “blurb”, in Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Phoenix Books Incorporated, →ISBN

   1 more example

   […] women, by and large, do not like themselves very much: their ambition gaps, their orgasm gaps, their imposter syndrome, […] their trainwrecks, and their need for trainwrecks; the enduring, self-loathing need to find someone about whom they can say well, at least I'm not that girl.

   2016, Sady Doyle, Trainwreck, page 24

present singular third person train wrecks · participle present train wrecking · participle past train wrecked · past train wrecked · alternative trainwreck · alternative train-wreck

1. idiomaticinformaltransitiveTo ruin utterly and catastrophically, to cause to end in disaster.

   […] basic fundamental communication steps must be achieved so not to train wreck the new employee.

   2003, Peter A. Laporta,, Ignite the Passion, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 57

   1 more example

   "I want this, too, I want you. Like really want you more than anything I've wanted in a long time. But if you force it, you're going to train wreck the whole thing in a fiery mess over a steep cliff with jagged rocks below."

   2011, Jaden Lane, If You Could Read My Mind, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157