Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word train wreck. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word train wreck, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say train wreck in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word train wreck you have here. The definition of the word train wreck will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oftrain wreck, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
2007, Donna Hogan, “blurb”, in Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Phoenix Books Incorporated, →ISBN:
She may have been a train wreck, but she was a train wreck people still can't seem to get enough of. The sordid but fascinating story of her vicious, no-holds-barred battle with life is one of the most gripping, sex-soaked biographies in years.
2016, Sady Doyle, Trainwreck, page 24:
[…] women, by and large, do not like themselves very much: their ambition gaps, their orgasm gaps, their imposter syndrome, […] their trainwrecks, and their need for trainwrecks; the enduring, self-loathing need to find someone about whom they can say well, at least I'm not that girl.
Usage notes
In the UK, train crash is preferred for the literal sense, and car crash is more common but not exclusively used for the metaphorical sense.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
2003, Peter A. Laporta,, Ignite the Passion, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 57:
[…] basic fundamental communication steps must be achieved so not to train wreck the new employee.
2011, Jaden Lane, If You Could Read My Mind, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157:
"I want this, too, I want you. Like really want you more than anything I've wanted in a long time. But if you force it, you're going to train wreck the whole thing in a fiery mess over a steep cliff with jagged rocks below."
train wreck (slang): When the parts in an ensemble "collide" because the musicians are not playing together. Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary, p. 122.
Train wreck: in jazz, when everything comes off the rails - someone misses a repeat, skips the bridge, and so on. Dolmetsch Online.