Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
😵 Emotional collapse 🛩️ A spinning fall
tailspin

tailspin

2 7.6
A fast downward spin of an aircraft that loses control
  • noun
  • /ˈteɪlˌspɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : barrena
  • The pilot struggled to regain control as the plane went into a tailspin during the storm.
  • went into a tailspin
  • market into a tailspin
  • economy into a tailspin

Examples

  • We've all seen video of airplanes going into a tailspin.

    Blog text (32)

  • If we're ever going to get out of the tailspin we are in, cities have few choices.

    Blog text (2)

  • What put him in that long, slow tailspin was May Anna going to Hollywood.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Just as the plane in my right hand neared my blanket, I began a tailspin with the plane in my left.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The tailspin known as the Jacksonville Jaguars comes to town, but not before we get on and get off some Texans.

    Blog text (8)

  • I went to my room and played with my plastic airplanes, guiding them into fiery tailspins.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • He goes on to talk about everything that Obama has done, from having the self-appointed power to fire the CEO of a private company to printing enough unsupported money to send us into a Weimar Republic tailspin.

    Blog text (5)

  • The Reagan administration then did an about-face, demanding that Noriega leave office, but its strategy left the Panamanian economy reeling into a tailspin while Noriega reveled in his defiance of the northern colossus.

    Academic text (1991)

  • After losing several key players, the team entered a tailspin, losing five consecutive games.

  • The sudden loss of funding caused the project to go into a tailspin, jeopardizing its future.

Synonyms

spin
vstailspin
104 1.1

A quick turning movement of an object or person

means a fast downward spiraling movement in the air with loss of control

Idioms

in a tailspin
  • Informal
1 8.2

A sudden state of confusion and panic that makes someone lose control

Surface Forms

tailspin singular
tailspins plural

Morphology

tailspin = tail + spin (transparent) = tail + spin

Clear compound of the nouns 'tail' + 'spin' describing a spinning motion involving the tail of an aircraft; meaning is directly deducible from the parts.

Etymology

Tailspin comes from the two simple parts tail and spin and was first used in flying to name a plane whose tail makes it turn into a fast 'downward spiral'. So in aviation it means a rapid downward movement of an aircraft.