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View synonyms for nervous breakdown

nervous breakdown

noun

  1. (not in technical use) any disabling mental disorder requiring treatment.


nervous breakdown

noun

  1. any mental illness not primarily of organic origin in which the patient ceases to function properly, often accompanied by severely impaired concentration, anxiety, insomnia, and lack of self-esteem; used esp of episodes of depression
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of nervous breakdown1

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05
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Example Sentences

Truth be told, there is no one better at capturing the agony and alarm of a woman in the throes of a nervous breakdown than Moore.

“I am dying here and feel as if I could soon suffer a nervous breakdown,” he wrote.

Around Christmas, Rachel was reportedly hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.

Imagine Beyoncé, nervous breakdown or not, using a public platform to say the same things about say, Jennifer Aniston.

I might lose my job or my wife and have a nervous breakdown.

A coward by nature, he had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown before the trial, thinking of what might happen.

You will understand that I was in a condition of mind bordering upon a nervous breakdown.

The same types can often be recognised in those who suffer from nervous breakdown.

It is not unlikely that from the strain of the preceding few days a nervous breakdown had resulted.

I am afraid, doctor, she said, that the poor man has had a nervous breakdown.

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