tailspin
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L329002 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
noun
Etymology: From tail + spin.
- The rapid, uncontrollable descent of an aircraft in a steep spiral.
“The loss of the third engine threw the plane into a tailspin.”
- A severe mental or emotional collapse; emotional breakdown.
“Just hours after leaving the institution, she suffered another tailspin.”
- Any sharp, sustained, often uncontrollable descent or decline.
“The present stock tailspin proves bankruptcy is imminent.”
“But I was reading a statement that either you made or was part of your movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, and it said we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”
verb
Etymology: From tail + spin.
- Of an aircraft: to go into a rapid, uncontrollable descent in a steep spiral.
- To go into a sharp, sustained, often uncontrollable descent or decline.