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to recollapse

to recollapse

1 8.6
To fall in again after being fixed or made safe
  • verb
  • /ˌriːkəˈlæps/
: recolapsar
  • After a brief period of stability, the bridge began to recollapse due to the excessive weight of the traffic.

Examples

  • The structure was poorly reinforced, causing it to recollapse after the repairs were completed.

  • I didn't dare recollapse the staff; there was no saying when we might need it.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • This first engagement between gravity and entropy is over long before the universe is even a nanosecond old, but this initial one-sided outcome ensures that gravity cannot recollapse the universe for at least billions of years, and most likely, not ever.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Despite the initial restoration efforts, the building seemed destined to recollapse in the next storm.

Antonyms

44 4.3

To become steady and stop changing

Surface Forms

recollapse infinitive
recollapsed past participle
recollapsing present participle
recollapses third person singular

Morphology

recollapse = collapse (transparent) = re + collapse

Here 're-' has its ordinary meaning 'again', so 'recollapse' straightforwardly means 'collapse again'.

Etymology

Recollapse comes from re- 'again' plus collapse 'to fall down', just like replay or redo show doing something again. So to recollapse is to 'fall down again' or to collapse again.