Noun

(en noun)

A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed

We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.

A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability

After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.

Listing, division or categorization in great detail

''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.

(chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.

A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.

* 1992 , En Vogue, My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) (song)

And now it's time for a breakdown !

(sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=September 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.}}

(US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.

(US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.

* (rfdate) New Eng. Tales

Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.

(US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.

Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'

* 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)

Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned breakdown . A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet - these were the instruments.

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* {{quote-book, ???, title=Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, page=102,

books.google.com/books?isbn=1592403778, author=Stephen Davis, year=2008, passage=Izzy lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.}}

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Noun

(en noun)

Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor resulting in the core melting and radiation escaping.

Four years have passed since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but the grim legacy of the Soviet catastrophe is still unfolding. [http://www.time.com/time/daily/chernobyl/chernobyl.index.html]

A situation being likened to a nuclear meltdown; a crisis.

* 2001 , James Wickham, Perv Spoof Bosses Axe Wrestling'' (in ''The Daily Star )

Channel 4 switchboards went into meltdown this week when viewers called to complain about a Brass Eye programme on child sex.

Computer engineers were at a loss last night to explain why the Government had been hit by arguably the worst electronic meltdown in the history of Whitehall. [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=587262]

(figuratively) A tantrum.