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View synonyms for tailspin

tailspin

[ teyl-spin ]

noun

  1. a sudden and helpless collapse into failure, confusion, or the like.


verb (used without object)

, tail·spinned, tail·spin·ning.
  1. to take or experience a sudden and dramatic downturn:

    After the mill closes, the local economy may tailspin.

tailspin

/ ˈteɪlˌspɪn /

noun

  1. See spin
    aeronautics another name for spin
  2. informal.
    a state of confusion or panic


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Word History and Origins

Origin of tailspin1

First recorded in 1910–15; tail 1 + spin

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Idioms and Phrases

see go into a tailspin .

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Example Sentences

Shockingly, it was not the mass gay-and-straight wedding that sent some of his peers into a tailspin that bothered Beck.

So there we have it: another lewd, dull-witted performance has sent America into a tailspin of indignation.

Then a white supremacist started talking segregation and everything went into a tailspin.

Russia-U.S. relations were in a tailspin when Obama entered office.

Today, it is widely assumed that a default in Greece will send the world into a financial and then economic tailspin.

As she stepped inside this gigantic barrel her mind went into a tailspin.

Yes, he had all but gone into a tailspin, and that with his motor thundering at its best.

Instantly the heavy plane went into a tailspin and plunged earthward.

She side-slipped, her nose dipped down, an she went into a tailspin.

A warning from the observation towersomebody was in tailspin.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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