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)

1. (idiomatic) To fail; to collapse; to worsen; to enter a state of disarray.
   • 1664, Samuel Rutherford, Joshua redivivus, or, Mr. Rutherfoord's letters […] ‎^[1], [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^[2], 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.

   • 1991 May 5, Stewart Ain, “Bottom Falls Out Of Summer Job Market”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     But in the last four months, the bottom has fallen out of the job market, officials say.

   • 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 […]