I.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a business collapses/fails (=stops operating)
▪ 35% of small businesses fail in the first year of operation.
a coalition collapses/breaks up
▪ Austria's ruling government coalition collapsed.
a regime collapses/falls (=loses power)
▪ Authoritarian regimes tend to collapse in times of economic hardship.
a state of collapse (=the state of being very ill or weak)
▪ The economy was in a state of collapse.
a system collapses (=fails completely)
▪ The European Exchange Rate system collapsed in the 1970s.
an empire collapses (=fails and ends suddenly)
▪ When the business empire collapsed, thousands of employees lost their jobs.
an empire falls/collapses (=loses power suddenly)
▪ In A.D.476, the western part of the Empire collapsed.
collapse in/into a chair (=sit down suddenly because you are very tired or upset)
▪ Eileen collapsed into a chair and burst out crying.
collapse/dissolve into giggles (= start laughing a lot)
▪ Victor tickled the little boy, who dissolved into giggles.
crack/collapse/buckle etc under the strain (=become unable to continue normally because of the strain)
▪ They are worried that the court system might collapse under the strain.
talks break down/collapse (=stop because of disagreement)
▪ Talks broke down today between the Russian and Japanese delegations.
the breakdown/collapse of talks
▪ The collapse of the talks sent shock waves round the world.
the collapse of an empire
▪ He left the country after the collapse of his construction empire.
the fall/collapse of an empire (=the sudden end of an empire)
▪ After the battle of Waterloo, the collapse of Napoleon's empire was inevitable.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
suddenly
▪ Profits had been falling for some years; investment collapsed suddenly in summer 1974.
▪ In any game of brinkmanship, it is possible that one side will collapse suddenly.
▪ When it has exhausted its reserves, it collapses suddenly.
▪ The reticence which had surrounded the subject for so long had suddenly collapsed on all sides.
■ NOUN
bed
▪ After my first spell of night duty I collapsed into bed and slept for nineteen hours.
▪ They collapsed into bed, holding on tightly.
▪ I only just managed to get back to our house before collapsing into bed.
▪ I wanted to collapse on the bed and scream.
▪ Zach collapsed on the bed and grinned sheepishly at them.
▪ At two o'clock I collapsed into my hotel bed.
▪ We collapse together on to the bed, breathing in time.
bridge
▪ Philippa's fear was exaggerated, as if a bridge had started to collapse under her.
▪ He told the driver to stop as the bridge was going to collapse.
▪ It had been night and for a long time no one knew that the bridge had collapsed.
▪ Two workmen were killed when a maintenance gantry fixed to the bridge collapsed two years ago.
chair
▪ Jan raised her hand to Darren, and he collapsed in the chair with a pout like Marilyn Monroe.
▪ I was last, and collapsed into my chair.
▪ Charles didn't respond and after a frozen pause, she collapsed into a chair and burst out crying.
▪ He collapsed into a chair and began to cry ... it was ages before he could say anything.
▪ I swayed across to it, was admitted by an elderly lady and collapsed in a chair.
▪ In the make-up room she collapsed into a chair, dropping her head into her hands and groaning heavily.
▪ Back in the study Edward Crumwallis collapsed into the chair usually reserved for boys whom he was hauling over the coals.
company
▪ Several high-profile companies collapsed, including Qunitext, a television and leisure resort company headed by Christopher Skase.
▪ That comparison is made even more potent given that the large company tends to collapse the distinction between private and public power.
▪ But the investment company collapsed, and now Mr Woodward and his wife owe sixty thousand pounds and may loose their house.
▪ I certainly did not want existing company schemes to collapse and saw no reason why this should happen.
▪ It seemed that every day the papers carried more reports of companies collapsing bringing inevitable job losses and their knock-on effects.
▪ The surprise payment was hailed as a triumph by the receivers of the Belfast car company which collapsed ten years ago.
▪ Internet access company Breath.com has collapsed with debts of $ 75m.
▪ Contrary to the industry's predictions, existing company schemes have not collapsed.
debt
▪ Stock exchanges and property prices collapsed, so the debts became overwhelming.
▪ Internet access company Breath.com has collapsed with debts of $ 75m.
▪ The group collapsed with debts of over £80m.
▪ Just down the road at Shalford, electrical contractor Schupke collapsed with debts of £100,000 and the loss of 21 jobs.
economy
▪ Officials take heart that the economy has not collapsed since the withdrawal of Soviet aid.
▪ Under such circumstances, the economy would collapse.
▪ If Britain's economy were to collapse at some future point, there would be mass emigration once more.
▪ Upon reflection, we might wonder why such an economy does not collapse in complete chaos.
▪ Since it has never been allowed to develop any outlets, what is left of the economy would collapse.
▪ Deny people the freedom to be what they want and to do what they want, and an economy will collapse.
▪ The economy had collapsed: according to the World Bank, half the population earned less than $ 220 a year.
▪ Since 1989 the emission of pollutants has in fact fallen, but only because the economy has collapsed.
government
▪ Tax reforms propounded by Zolotas's all-party Cabinet installed after the November election were dropped when this government collapsed in February 1990.
▪ And, within less than one year, this right-coalition government also collapsed.
▪ His government collapsed, and he has spent six years fighting-and winning-court battles, often on technicalities.
ground
▪ They collapsed together on the ground.
▪ Four blocks from home, shots rang out and their crumpled bodies collapsed to the ground.
▪ He collapses to the ground, clutching at his chest as his back arches.
▪ When exposed to direct light the leaves collapse and touch the ground and the plant dies.
▪ I flipped from fury straight into hilarity and collapsed on the ground beside him, rolling around in helpless laughter too.
▪ While Guy stepped off, hardly out of breath, his competitor collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.
▪ The musical interlude went on for ten minutes and finished with the mad figures collapsing on the ground.
▪ They collapsed gasping to the ground.
heap
▪ The foreigner stumbled on a few steps, his brains leaking out around his earphones, and collapsed in a heap.
▪ Sure enough, the Mean Machine runs the same play again and Budanski collapses in a heap, not breathing.
▪ There he collapsed in an exhausted heap, all strength drained from his limbs.
▪ Who knew when she might collapse in a heap of baubles and bangles?
▪ The parliament building had burned, its roof had collapsed and a large heap of concrete lay around its doors.
▪ Only one or two skeletons, in their finery, have collapsed into a mouldering heap on the tiled floor.
▪ Graham never saw what hit him, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
market
▪ But the market has largely collapsed.
▪ Critics also worry about what would happen if the markets collapsed.
▪ Stock markets collapsed, hedge funds teetered on the brink.
▪ When the housing market collapsed, it appears that this property was affected because it became the subject of a forced sale.
▪ With Chernobyl the foreign market collapsed overnight.
▪ Since then the luxury car market has collapsed and the speculators want out.
▪ When the rules changed, the junk market collapsed.
price
▪ Stock exchanges and property prices collapsed, so the debts became overwhelming.
▪ At $ 3, 300, the price might also collapse the average Kmart shopper.
▪ But when that new equity fell through, all prices collapsed to around 20%.
▪ When the tin price collapsed, the miners formulated a plan to keep the mines open under their control with reduced costs.
▪ Under the impact of soaring oil prices living standards collapsed in a welter of rationing and corruption.
strain
▪ If it were otherwise the court system would simply collapse under the strain.
▪ His knees were wobbling as if they might collapse under the strain of holding his body upright.
system
▪ Then, the immune system begins to collapse.
▪ Communism forgot that basic truth and the system collapsed.
▪ Before a system collapses, however, it often displays signs that something is amiss.
▪ Take away coffee, and the entire system collapses.
▪ Within the former Soviet Union, the central planning system collapsed.
▪ What if a liberal contract-based system collapses?
▪ Such will be the misery caused that in the end the system will collapse.
wall
▪ There is no danger of the walls collapsing under the load of these roofs.
▪ Eventually the water weakens the structure, and the walls and floors collapse.
▪ This happened with fatal consequences in 1953 when the Lee Wick wall collapsed sending water shooting over the marshes to Jaywick.
▪ One after another the bamboos broke, or their walls collapsed inward, and they had to be thrown away.
▪ Another chunk of wall collapsed, sending up a billowing cloud of dust.
▪ The pressure of the expanding beans forced the western outer wall to collapse.
▪ The people working in the bakery escaped alive only because its wall collapsed outward into the alleyway.
▪ Now, seven years after the wall collapsed, Berlin is creating an urban showcase for the 21st century.
weight
▪ The wooden hoop supporting the foliage had almost collapsed beneath its weight.
▪ That excuse collapses under the weight of its own zits.
▪ At least 343 people were killed, many of them by buildings collapsing under the weight of rain-soaked ash and mud.
▪ By the 57605 these institutions could safely be abolished, for they had essentially collapsed of their own weight.
▪ It ultimately collapses beneath the weight of its deception.
▪ My daddy's front porch almost collapsed from the weight of the scouts.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a near disaster/collapse etc
fall/collapse etc in a heap
▪ Ace, Defries and Bernice fell in a heap.
▪ Graham never saw what hit him, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
▪ Sure enough, the Mean Machine runs the same play again and Budanski collapses in a heap, not breathing.
▪ The foreigner stumbled on a few steps, his brains leaking out around his earphones, and collapsed in a heap.
▪ The gallant commander and his horse fell in a heap... the horse dead, the rider unhurt.
▪ The lion fell in a heap, and she got a steel knee on top of it.
▪ Who knew when she might collapse in a heap of baubles and bangles?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ After half a dozen glasses of whisky he collapsed and could not be revived.
▪ Cohen was hospitalized after he collapsed on the floor and briefly lost consciousness.
▪ Come quickly, one of the passengers has collapsed.
▪ Former Mayor Ed Koch collapsed this morning at a health club in midtown Manhattan.
▪ Milligan collapsed into a chair, sighing deeply.
▪ Minutes later the second tower collapsed.
▪ One of the horses collapsed from exhaustion after the race.
▪ Our tent collapsed in the middle of the night.
▪ Part of the floor collapsed as a result of water damage.
▪ She finally took a break and collapsed in a chair.
▪ The building was badly damaged in the explosion, and rescue workers are worried that it may collapse.
▪ The U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed due to increased foreign competition.
▪ When folded in this way, the map collapses to pocket size.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A battle between the traders and the corporate financiers caused the firm to collapse in early 1984.
▪ But his move to Old Trafford collapsed when the club medical revealed a knee problem.
▪ His courage never faltered, but his health collapsed.
▪ Please try not to upset or destroy this finely balanced mechanism or the building blocks will collapse like a row of dominoes.
▪ The crest of his life collapsed with the Hotsy shooting.
▪ The external guarantees that formerly enabled the Vaudois to survive had largely collapsed.
▪ We got up and ran about 50 yards, and I collapsed.
▪ When the suit collapsed Aitken was charged with perjury, for which he served a seven-month jail term.
II.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
complete
▪ It was the ordinary police who prevented a complete collapse of law and order in the loyalist urban districts of Belfast.
▪ Death occurs when a quickened beat pushes the heart muscle to complete collapse.
▪ Edward's intervention had at least saved Montfort's cause from complete collapse.
▪ Food shortages would probably galvanise public anger into action, as would a complete collapse of the economy.
▪ Even if there is a complete collapse in the talks, it is unlikely to lead to general hostilities.
economic
▪ The forest is new: the ultimate victor in the conflicts, economic collapse and depopulation of the late nineteenth century.
▪ In the United States in the 1930s, a financial collapse led to an economic collapse.
▪ Mr Karimov knows that he will stand or fall on his ability to stave off economic collapse.
▪ We moved ahead rapidly when the economic collapse of the Depression strained the capacities of families and communities to the breaking point.
▪ Unemployment and economic collapse have changed our views.
▪ Futures commissions are often created by communities that have experienced some form of trauma, such as economic collapse.
▪ Diehard optimists, like Mr Pynzenyk, say that hyperinflation and economic collapse will eventually force the country to its senses.
▪ The most extreme pessimists foretell a future of demographically driven privation, environmental overshoot, and economic collapse.
final
▪ The reported death of Polonius causes Dycarbas's final collapse, and brings Terentia to the verge of suicide.
▪ From the shambles of the aldermanic elections and the final collapse of the Kelly-Nash leadership, Daley walked out even stronger.
financial
▪ And an extended payments schedule might well recover the debt more surely than strict enforcement - which might instead precipitate financial collapse.
▪ In the United States in the 1930s, a financial collapse led to an economic collapse.
▪ Mr Pin says that the government is blaming him for the entire financial collapse.
▪ None is big enough or bold enough to offset the negative effects of the financial collapse.
▪ But this success was tempered by the fact that Colebrooke's period in office coincided with the Company's financial collapse.
gravitational
▪ Then war intervened, Oppenheimer became involved in the atom bomb project, and he lost interest in gravitational collapse.
▪ It showed that gravitational collapse was not as much of a dead end as it had appeared to be.
▪ In 1965 I read about Penrose's theorem that any body undergoing gravitational collapse must eventually form a singularity.
▪ Let me go back to my earlier discussion of gravitational collapse.
▪ However, Chandrasekhar showed that for a sufficiently massive star the gravitational collapse continues until the star shrinks to a point.
▪ The no-hair theorem implies that a large amount of information is lost in a gravitational collapse.
▪ It modifies the scenario of gravitational collapse in the following way.
imminent
▪ Experts say this whole section of the ancient Abbey was in imminent danger of collapse.
▪ Repeated scientific warnings about the imminent collapse of cod stocks were ignored and the vast shoals vanished.
▪ He has no reason to fear the imminent collapse either of his administration or his country.
▪ The tree, thought to be more than 2,000 years old, was in imminent danger of collapse.
near
▪ Of the two, he was faring worse, panting, gasping, even appearing to be near collapse.
subsequent
▪ Yet his subsequent collapse from hero to villain has been as sudden as a Patriot missile strike.
▪ At some later date, a slight glacial retreat would weaken the dam wall and its subsequent collapse would prove catastrophic.
sudden
▪ The army's sudden collapse has been attributed to poor leadership, exhaustion and poor morale.
▪ A sudden collapse could cause a run on mutual funds, which could in turn threaten the financial system.
▪ Bollards are prone to sudden collapse, and the ropes often jam in the groove behind the capstan during retrieval.
▪ The sudden collapse of Communism raised the power of global capitalism to new heights.
▪ After Allitt moved out of the Jobsons' home, his dizzy spells, craving for chocolate and sudden collapses had stopped.
▪ It meant any sudden collapse and loss of awareness.
▪ It was a sudden, painless collapse and I had no chance to do anything.
▪ That had led to his sudden and unexpected collapse, the heart giving out.
total
▪ Events of the past week have shown it is not likely to be among the major companies that total collapses will occur.
▪ But the total collapse or disappearance of one was never seen as an appropriate goal of foreign policy.
▪ I am 46, going grey and on the point of total collapse.
▪ The Rassemblement had been premised on a total governmental collapse.
▪ But the gravest threat to health is posed by the total collapse of the economy, and the ensuing chronic poverty.
■ NOUN
market
▪ Solicitors' firms are caught out by the housing market collapse.
▪ Barring market collapse, they should retain their premium.
▪ Well over £2 billion has been invested in such assets since the stock market collapse in October 1987.
■ VERB
cause
▪ What caused its collapse was Craig's conversion to something which could be presented to loyalists as power-sharing.
▪ They did so again amid the turmoil caused by the collapse of Soviet power in 1991.
▪ Bottoms' version of the crisis of legitimacy is caused by the collapse of the rehabilitative ideal.
▪ Unemployment caused by the collapse of coal and steel will not be solved by a garden festival.
▪ The reported death of Polonius causes Dycarbas's final collapse, and brings Terentia to the verge of suicide.
lead
▪ These anxieties were shortly to lead to his mental collapse.
▪ In the United States in the 1930s, a financial collapse led to an economic collapse.
▪ Worsening expectations had not yet led to a collapse in investment, however.
▪ With construction of the dam, the loss of nutrient rich sediment led to the collapse of sardine fishing in the delta.
▪ The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the collapse of most local industries.
▪ Details are emerging of the final stages of the talks which led to the collapse of the bid on Tuesday night.
▪ The scandal led to a collapse in popularity and bitter internal quarrels on how to proceed.
▪ The stability of the wall is obviously affected, and if left untreated may lead to eventual collapse.
prevent
▪ It was the ordinary police who prevented a complete collapse of law and order in the loyalist urban districts of Belfast.
suffer
▪ The doctor had suffered a temporary mental collapse and subsequent bouts of violent behaviour.
▪ In 1966, while undergoing a Caesarean section, she had suffered a collapse under the anaesthetic.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ After Stephen's sudden collapse during the meeting, he was rushed to the hospital.
▪ Buildings must be strengthened to prevent collapse from an earthquake.
▪ He was sued for his role in the collapse of Southwest Savings and Loan.
▪ Roy is recovering from last week's collapse.
▪ the collapse of the stock market in 1987
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Devoted to public order and financial stability, he presided over and accelerated the collapse of both.
▪ For most of them the railway symbolized dispossession and in some cases the collapse of their traditional economies.
▪ Gravitational collapse releases energy; and collapse to a single, dimensionless point releases an infinite amount of it.
▪ None is big enough or bold enough to offset the negative effects of the financial collapse.
▪ The collapse of Spinward has implications for the whole of the human-occupied galaxy.
▪ The second-half collapse was subtle at first but sudden when it finally happened.
▪ This is exactly the sort of collapse that keyed their six straight losses in the last two months of last season.