bottom fall out
English
Verb
bottom fall out (third-person singular simple present bottom falls out, present participle bottom falling out, simple past bottom fell out, past participle bottom fallen out)
- (idiomatic) To fail, to collapse, to worsen, to enter a state of disarray.
- 1664, Samuel Rutherford, Joshua redivivus, or, Mr. Rutherfoord's letters […] , [Rotterdam?], page 243:
- Dear Brother, I cannot tell what is become of my labours among that people: If all that my Lord builded by me be caſten down, & the bottom fallen out of the profeſſion of that parish, […] how can I bear it?
- 1889, Horatio Alger Jr., Luke Walton, or The Chicago Newsboy, Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., page 132:
- With the ten thousand dollars, I hired an office, printed circulars, distributed glowing accounts of imaginary wealth, etc. It cost considerable[sic] for advertising, but I sold seventy thousand shares, and when I had gathered in the money I let the bottom fall out.
- 2003, James F. Petras; Henry Veltmeyer, System in Crisis: The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism, page 10:
- The first major financial crisis occurred in Mexico, in December 1994, when the bottom fell out of the stock market […]