| 释义 |
meltdown|ˈmɛltdaʊn|
[f. vbl. phr. to melt down (melt v.1 8 c).]
a. The process of melting.
1937Ice Cream Trade Jrnl. Mar. 36/1 The Sod. Alg. ice cream melts down cleanly in the mouth... Due to the clean melt-down..a cooler sensation results in the mouth than with gelatin ice cream. 1965New Scientist 15 Apr. 161/3 Overheated fuel may result in ‘meltdown’ and general contamination of the reactor system. 1975New Yorker 12 May 98/2 He was worried about loss-of-coolant accidents, core meltdowns, and breaches of containment walls.
b. A melted mass.
1973Sci. Amer. Aug. 114/2 They recycle..bottles into gemlike necklaces, the meltdown fanned by the bowl bellows of ancient Egypt.
Senses a, b in Dict. become 1a, 2. Add: [1.] b. fig. Any uncontrolled and usu. disastrous transformation with far-reaching repercussions; a collapse or reversal of fortune; spec. in Comm., a sudden rapid drop in the value of a specified currency or of assets, shares, etc.; a crash.
1983S. & M. Tolchin Dismantling Amer. vi. 189 (chapter title) Political meltdown. 1986Washington Post 2 June 3/1 They did this mostly, sources say, out of fear of the alternative—a mass fire sale of the EPIC properties. Such a ‘meltdown’, as it was referred to by lawyers on the case, could have had catastrophic repercussions in the nation's mortgage markets. 1986Times 13 Nov. 10 (heading) Brasilia attempts to halt economic melt-down. 1988New Yorker 21 Mar. 25/1 A recent warm spell..had caused a ‘winter meltdown’. Last October's stock-market collapse..was a ‘market meltdown’. A novelist wrote that his central character's fraying nerves had brought about a ‘mental meltdown’. 1990Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Aug. 160/1 If women are alienated, homosexuals have reached the meltdown stage. 1991Premiere Dec. 68/3 Julia Roberts experienced a fame melt-down on the order of Marilyn Monroe. 1992Financial Times 11–12 Apr. ii. 2/7 Talk of a meltdown in Japan plunging Wall Street into crisis and the US economy back into recession. |