come unglued

come unglued

1. To become extremely upset or emotional. Primarily heard in US. Poor Jane really came unglued during the funeral service.
2. To encounter setbacks or fail altogether. Primarily heard in US. Boy, this party is really coming unglued. First, there was the issue with the caterer, and now half the guests aren't coming.
See also: come, unglued
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

come unglued

Fig. to lose emotional control; to break out into tears or laughter. When Sally heard the joke, she almost came unglued. When the bank took away my car, I came unglued and cried and cried.
See also: come, unglued
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

come unglued

Also, come unstuck. See come apart at the seams.
See also: come, unglued
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

come unglued

AMERICAN, INFORMAL
1. If someone comes unglued, they cannot control their emotions and they behave in a strange or crazy way. She had apparently come unglued since losing her job as a writer for Western Gentry magazine. He had come unglued over a girl who was pregnant with his child. She wouldn't marry him, and he had gone to her house with a sawn-off shotgun and threatened to shoot her.
2. If someone or something comes unglued, they fail. Their marriage finally came unglued. Everything seemed to be coming unglued. Note: The usual British expression is come unstuck.
See also: come, unglued
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

come unˈglued

(American English, informal)
1 become very upset: I don’t know why, but whenever I take my child to the doctor’s she comes unglued.
2 if a plan, etc. comes unglued, it does not work successfully: Personally, I’m not sorry the building plans have come unglued. It means they’ll leave the public park alone.
See also: come, unglued
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

come unglued

Informal
To lose one's composure.
See also: come, unglued
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • become unglued
  • unglued
  • come unstuck
  • become unstuck
  • unstuck
  • keep at it
  • Keep at it!
  • stay at it
  • stick with it
  • have a brush with (something)
References in periodicals archive
"My guess is they watch reality television shows about humans who come unglued at the presence of wasps."
Wasp smackdown: some insects you can work with, but wasps, never
It's no fun to watch Claire come unglued like this.
YourLIFE: WE LOVE TELLY! - SOAPWATCH CORONATION STREET ITV1, 7.30 & 8.30pm
Many of the major deals that have come unglued involved bankers, investment bankers, auditors, equity investors, lessees, vendors, lawyers for the lessee, lawyers for the lessor, the banks and so on.
Reforming governance: companies must go beyond rules to focus on issues of character
When her maternal grandmother shows up unannounced from Portugal with an inheritance and the momentous news Norah's mother is alive and living in Switzerland, the teenager's precisely organized life begins to come unglued and builds toward the inevitable voyage of discovery that will lead to the next phase in her life.
I Always Wanted to Be a Saint
A page in the Sing-along Song Barney book had come unglued, revealing a writhing nude woman beneath.
Mum sues over book photo error
But move up close again and that ideality begins to clot, crack, fray, buckle and come unglued. The realization arises not only that the optical and all else is built upon the brutely tactile, but also that the very movement to and fro before the surfaces of abstraction, whether to take pleasure in them, to write their history or to deconstruct them, whether to constitute or take apart their transcendent illusions, is the movement of the body, and so necessarily involves the demands, desires, and drives of the bodily, and its sexing as well - precisely that which abstraction, or rather the theory and criticism of abstraction, had sought to expunge.
On Abstract Art
Sooner or later, water's many acts of adhesive vandalism cause synthetically bonded surfaces to come unglued, usually with the help of mechanical stresses.
Stuck on mussels: a mollusk's natural grasp of adhesive science captivates biochemists