fall to bits

fall to bits

1. Literally, to fall or break apart. This old truck my grandfather sold me started falling to bits as soon as I began driving it.
2. To become emotionally upset or unstable. She fell to bits when she heard the news of her mother's death.
See also: bit, fall
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • shut down emotionally
  • black and blue
  • black-and-blue
  • in a bad way
  • damaged
  • handbag
  • handbags at dawn
  • handbags at ten paces
  • be shot
  • heart of oak
References in periodicals archive
tschniztoon: Good news....fewer 4 bedroom soulless Wendy houses which will fall to bits in 25 years!" Alan Taylor: "Got enough new houses on that site as it is."
TOP COMMENT
Did this country fall to bits in 1945 after the second world war?
We won't fall apart without EU
This whole issue with Livingstone Road baths was a done deal from day one and even half of the roof was removed to help the poor old building fall to bits. What a way to treat something that as served this city so well.
Appalling treatment of leisure centre members; Letters
What guarantees do we have if they fall to bits as soon as we get back?
Q&A
I THINK Jane Davidson is living in cloud cuckoo land if she thinks these plastic carrier bags last between 500 to 1,000 years; they are so thin they fall to bits after six to 12 months, much faster in the sun.
In cloud cuckoo land; VIEWPOINTS
STEVE BRUCE will be chewing his fingernails as Arsenal embark on another Champions League attempt and praying Arsene Wenger's superstar strike-force doesn't "fall to bits."
Football: DON'T NICK KID, ARSENE; Bruce plea to keep Gunners' Klas act
That's what the Government argued in the 1920s when it first allowed the TA to fall to bits.
Last stand for Dad's Army
Python Properties, also submitted plans (ignored) to restore the much missed North Riding Infirmary, another building which was shamelessly allowed to fall to bits - and we all know what happened there (all that remains is the portico, pictured).
WHATEVER the political debates that [...]
"There's a real chance the race could fall to bits."
MADNESS OF KING GEORGE