bottom fall out

bottom fall out (third-person singular simple present bottom falls out, present participle bottom falling out, simple past bottom fell out, past participle bottom fallen out)

1. (idiomatic) To fail, to collapse, to worsen, to enter a state of disarray.
   • 1664, Samuel Rutherford, Joshua redivivus, or, Mr. Rutherfoord's letters […] ‎, [Rotterdam?], page 243:

     Dear Brother, I cannot tell what is become of my labours among that people: If all that my Lord builded by me be caſten down, & the bottom fallen out of the profeſſion of that parish, […] how can I bear it?

   • 1889, Horatio Alger Jr., Luke Walton, or The Chicago Newsboy‎, Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., page 132:

     With the ten thousand dollars, I hired an office, printed circulars, distributed glowing accounts of imaginary wealth, etc. It cost considerable^[sic] for advertising, but I sold seventy thousand shares, and when I had gathered in the money I let the bottom fall out.

   • 2003, James F. Petras; Henry Veltmeyer, System in Crisis: The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism, page 10:

     The first major financial crisis occurred in Mexico, in December 1994, when the bottom fell out of the stock market […]