What's the difference between collapse and downfall?

Collapse


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To fall together suddenly, as the sides of a hollow vessel; to close by falling or shrinking together; to have the sides or parts of (a thing) fall in together, or be crushed in together; as, a flue in the boiler of a steam engine sometimes collapses.
  • (v. i.) To fail suddenly and completely, like something hollow when subject to too much pressure; to undergo a collapse; as, Maximilian's government collapsed soon after the French army left Mexico; many financial projects collapse after attaining some success and importance.
  • (n.) A falling together suddenly, as of the sides of a hollow vessel.
  • (n.) A sudden and complete failure; an utter failure of any kind; a breakdown.
  • (n.) Extreme depression or sudden failing of all the vital powers, as the result of disease, injury, or nervous disturbance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As collapse was imminent, MAP increased but CO and TPR did not change significantly.
  • (2) Video games specialist Game was teetering on the brink of collapse on Friday after a rescue deal put forward by private equity firm OpCapita appeared to have been given the cold shoulder by lenders who are owed more than £100m.
  • (3) Meeting after meeting during 2011 to try to hammer out agreements about the basic shape of the Egyptian constitution – meetings that always mysteriously collapsed.
  • (4) Poor workplace health and safety, inadequate toilet facilities and dangerous fumes from mosquito fogging that led to one asylum seeker with asthma collapsing were all raised as concerns by Kilburn, although he stressed that he believed G4S management and expatriate G4S staff acted appropriately.
  • (5) The ATPase inhibitor dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, which collapsed the chemical and electrical components of the proton motive force, caused rapid cell swelling in the presence of glucose (and high intracellular ATP levels).
  • (6) Cobra collapsed into administration in 2009 after which Lord Bilimoria was criticised for using a “pre-pack” deal to buy back a stake in the firm.
  • (7) For the next three years, Foxtons suffered collapsing sales and staff culls.
  • (8) Sometimes it can seem as if the history of the City is the history of its crises and disasters, from the banking crisis of 1825 (which saw undercapitalised banks collapse – perhaps the closest historic parallel to the contemporary credit crunch), through the Spanish panic of 1835, the railway bust of 1837, the crash of Overend Gurney, the Kaffir boom, the Westralian boom, the Marconi scandal, and so on and on – a theme with endless variations.
  • (9) The Rio+ 20 Earth summit could collapse after countries failed to agree on acceptable language just two weeks before 120 world leaders arrive at the biggest UN summit ever organised, WWF warned on Wednesday.
  • (10) Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) inhibits this carrier in a time- and concentration -dependent manner as shown by the following evidence: it inhibits the carrier-mediated pH gradient driven monoamine uptake without collapsing the pH gradient; it affects the binding of the specific inhibitors [2-3H]dihydrotetrabenazine and [3H]reserpine.
  • (11) After completion of the hepatectomy, he developed circulatory collapse of unknown cause and died shortly after the operation.
  • (12) Secularism is the only way to stop collapse and chaos and to foster bonds of citizenship in our complex democracy.
  • (13) In such cases, hypertension must be controlled with phentolamine or sodium nitroprusside, cardiac arrhythmia with lignocaine, and collapse with volaemic expansion.
  • (14) Two conditions must be fulfilled: a lesion of a non collapsible vein; and a pressure gradient from outside to inside the vein, as occurs for instance during puncture of a large vein in a hypovolemic patient.
  • (15) Gastroduodenal investigation must of course be comprised of pictures during collapse, semi-collapse and repletion of the entire duodenal outline; once out of every two times, one has to recourse to intravenous duodenography which has become a routine investigation.
  • (16) When communism collapsed at the end of the 1980s and the sledgehammers started to thud into the Berlin Wall, the future for laissez-faire economics was brighter than it had been since 1914.
  • (17) Emergency teams are still working to reconnect 10,000 households in northern England which lost power in blizzards and gales, after all-night repairs on collapsed cables which left 80,000 cut off.
  • (18) In 4 persons the test had to be stopped because of collapse.
  • (19) Peacocks , the budget fashion chain, has fallen into administration, putting 9,600 jobs at risk, after a management buyout deal collapsed at the last minute.
  • (20) Nuclear pyknosis was seen in cortical cells of animals dying in collapse.

Downfall


Definition:

  • (n.) A sudden fall; a body of things falling.
  • (n.) A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "The Mayans couldn't even predict their own downfall, could they?"
  • (2) The trial, originally expected to be staid, has exposed severe dysfunction within Bo's family and detailed the complicated tangle of allegiances and affairs that led to his downfall .
  • (3) The imposition of a poll tax on the Scots in 1989 contributed to Margaret Thatcher's downfall and all but wiped out Scottish Toryism.
  • (4) Mal Brough has vowed to stare down calls to resign over his role in the downfall of the former speaker Peter Slipper as the Labor party seeks to build pressure on Malcolm Turnbull for backing the special minister of state.
  • (5) Vladimir Putin painted a colourful picture of Russia's protesters on Thursday, describing them as agents of the west, attending useless demonstrations with condoms pinned to their chests as they sought the downfall of the motherland.
  • (6) Martin Kyrle, 79, a former mayor of Eastleigh and an active member of the Liberal Democrat party for 55 years, attributes Huhne's downfall to "a personal flaw.
  • (7) The 2012 rebellion was partly an unintended consequence of Muammar Gaddafi's downfall in Libya.
  • (8) Zhao, who was kept under intense surveillance at his home after his downfall and whose excursions and visitors were vetted, recorded his memoirs in such secrecy that even family members were unaware of his project.
  • (9) 'No,' he said with his usual solemn deliberation, 'it was the downfall of a great people and a great civilisation.'
  • (10) As ruthless as Liverpool were with their finishing, in particular the irrepressible Luis Suárez , who scored twice to take his tally for the season to 22, Stoke were guilty of some calamitous defending and contributed largely to their own downfall.
  • (11) More than 15 million Egyptians have signed a petition calling for the president's downfall, furious at Morsi's unilateralism and impatient at plummeting living standards.
  • (12) It never does | Lenore Taylor Read more Jamie Briggs resigned as the minister for cities and the built environment after “inappropriate” conduct towards a staffer during an official visit to Hong Kong and Mal Brough stood aside as special minister of state pending a police investigation into his alleged role in the downfall of Peter Slipper.
  • (13) Nokia's downfall came about because its Symbian smartphone software was awash with redundancy and complexity.
  • (14) Thatcher secured her position over more than a decade in power through a brutal belief in her own outlook, a belief that became sclerotic, and led to her downfall.
  • (15) Mal Brough faces fresh parliamentary pressure over his role in the downfall of the former speaker Peter Slipper , after his attempt to walk away from a key admission was undermined by 60 Minutes releasing the unedited interview exchange.
  • (16) Macmillan and Thatcher paid with their jobs for being too brutal; Blair's downfall at the hands of Brown's acolytes was, to some extent at least, a consequence of him not being brutal enough.
  • (17) Today Luzhkov named Medvedev's press secretary, Natalia Timakova, and a Kremlin ideologist, Vladislav Surkov, as plotters of his downfall.
  • (18) The downfall of Sepp Blatter and the disgraced Fifa president’s one-time heir apparent, Michel Platini , is all but complete after both were banned from football for eight years by the world governing body’s own ethics committee.
  • (19) An early example of such alteration was the conversion to desert of the rich Tigris and Euphrates valleys through erosion and salt accumulation resulting from faulty irrigation practices that caused the downfall of the great Mesopotamian civilization.
  • (20) When asked if studio Fox were bothered by this he claimed: “They never said anything!” Despite his new project, Emmerich believes that “sequels are the downfall of films”.