a roller-coaster ride

roller coaster ride

A series or period of drastic changes that occur without warning. After she graduated from college, her life became a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs as she tried to establish herself as a fashion designer.
See also: coaster, ride, roller
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

a roller-coaster ride

If you describe an experience as a roller-coaster ride, you mean that parts of it were very good and parts of it were very bad. Markets on both sides of the Atlantic have had a roller coaster ride over the past five days. The past week was an emotional roller-coaster ride for these people.
See also: ride
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

a roller-coaster ride

an experience in which circumstances change rapidly and in a volatile manner from one extreme to another.
2004 BBC News: Business Shares have been on a rollercoaster ride, with US shares plunging and then recovering twice over.
See also: ride
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • roller coaster ride
  • coaster
  • roller coaster
  • lose (one's) nerve
  • lose one's nerve
  • be dying for something/to do something
  • be dying to (do something)
  • the urge to purge
  • urge to purge
  • die to
References in periodicals archive
"The thrill of a roller-coaster ride with its climbs, loops and dives can speed up the heart, sparking off an irregular heartbeat that could put individuals with heart disease at risk of having a cardiovascular event like myocardial infarction."
According to the theme park, "Processing the fearful information during a roller-coaster ride can be so intense on your emotional core, it's instantly stored in your Hippocampus (the part of your brain that looks after emotional memories).
Are you fit enough for an adventure ride?
A female flies in to cling to the ball for a roller-coaster ride. After the pair mates, the ball serves as baby food.
Beetles navigate by lunar polarity. (Moonlighting)
People can survive just fine without a roller-coaster ride for a few hours--but that doesn't work for a respirator."
Outage or outrage?
AND what a roller-coaster ride this peace process is turning out to be...a roller-coaster ride from hell that is.
Nicola Tallant's column: It pays to get a peace of the action
"The thrill of a roller-coaster ride is the sense of danger but it is perception rather than reality.
You're in safe hands with white knuckle mechanics; Ross Reyburn meets the men responsible for the safety of roller coaster rides