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# meltdown

«meltdown» in Mova's school dictionary: **A serious accident in a nuclear power station when the…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a meltdown, meltdowns)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A serious accident in a nuclear power station when the core gets so hot that it melts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#m1)

2) (informal) A moment when someone loses control of their feelings and cries or shouts, like a toddler's tantrum. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#m2)

3) (informal) A sudden total failure or collapse: a market meltdown. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science, meltdown is the dangerous overheating of a nuclear reactor. In everyday talk parents speak of a child having a meltdown in a shop; teachers learn that some children have meltdowns when overwhelmed. In news it means a sudden crash.

### examples

- The little boy had a meltdown when the ice cream fell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x1)
- I nearly had a meltdown when my homework vanished from the computer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x2)
- Scientists work hard to stop a reactor meltdown. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x3)
- The team suffered a meltdown in the second half and lost. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x4)
- The town had a traffic meltdown in the snow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x5)
- Stay calm, there's no need for a meltdown. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/#x6)

### note

One word, from melt + down. Informal in the feelings sense. A meltdown in autism is different from a tantrum — it is not done on purpose, and kindness helps.

### In the corpora

- [A meltdown is not a tantrum for sweets: it is a brain that has had too much noise and light all at once.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/506-a-sibling-with-a-disability-or-illness-or-who-left-home/3/)
- [Autism means a brain that works differently; too much noise or light can cause a meltdown, which is not naughtiness.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/506-a-sibling-with-a-disability-or-illness-or-who-left-home/27/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «meltdown» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/meltdown/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.