What it means
Means you lose the plot and your emotions go on a mad one, often over something tiny. Can be tears, shouting, or a full-on strop, like your brain’s buffering and someone’s just pulled the plug. You’ll hear it about kids in Tesco, grown-ups at work, or your mate down the pub when nothing’s going their way.
Usage examples
"Dan had a meltdown when the chippy forgot his curry sauce, proper red in the face, having a strop like it was wartime rations."
"She had a complete meltdown when the wifi went down during her presentation."
"The toddler had a meltdown in the supermarket over a packet of sweets."
Where it comes from
Borrows the image of a nuclear meltdown, where a reactor overheats and the whole core melts down into chaos. Applied to a person, having a meltdown is that total emotional collapse when stress boils over, the tears, the shouting, the falling completely to pieces. Toddlers have them over the wrong cup, adults over deadlines, and the word fits both perfectly.
Other ways to say it
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