meltdown

(noun)

noun

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

Definition categories: process, overheating

2. a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown

- there is little likelihood of a meltdown comparable to the American banking collapse in March 1933

Definition categories: event, calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy

Sentences with meltdown as a noun:

- Four years have passed since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but the grim legacy of the Soviet catastrophe is still unfolding. [1]

- 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. [2]