train wreck

noun

variants or less commonly trainwreck

ˈtrān-ˌrek 

plural train wrecks also trainwrecks

1

: a violent and destructive crash involving a train

2

: an utter disaster or mess : a disastrous calamity or source of trouble

Six months later, with Washington facing a political train wreck in Iraq, whom did it call? The United Nations.

—Fareed Zakaria

The train wreck that was Florence Ballard could not be hidden anymore. … Those shows went on without a hitch, but with Ballard progressively drinking harder, disaster awaited them as they trekked from Miami to play several college dates across the South.

—Mark Ballard

… to create what is termed on Capitol Hill a train wreck—a budget crisis so awful that the President would have to seriously negotiate, and yield on taxes.

—Elizabeth Drew

Examples of train wreck in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Hired in the aftermath of the Morrell train wreck, Kristina Schake has served as Senior Executive VP and chief communications officer at Disney since 2022, working for both Chapak and the returning Bob Iger. —Ted Johnson, Deadline, 18 June 2024

The justice’s dissent was a train wreck of bad reasoning. —Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 14 June 2024

Tovar rescued the Rockies after a defensive train wreck nearly cost them the game in the sixth inning and almost wasted a start by right-hander Ryan Feltner. —Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post, 8 June 2024

These long-term views, however, can distract from the more prosaic near-term consequences of the robotics revolution—not the great dislocations caused by a superhuman machine consciousness but rather the small train wrecks that will result from the spread of mediocre robot intelligence. —Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Foreign Affairs, 16 June 2015

Word History

First Known Use

1874, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

train wreck

noun

1

: a violent and destructive crash involving a train

2

: an utter disaster or mess