bottom fall out

English

Phrase

bottom falls out

1. To fail; to collapse; 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.

   • 1991 May 5, Stewart Ain, “Bottom Falls Out Of Summer Job Market”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     But in the last four months, the bottom has fallen out of the job market, officials say.

   • 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 […]

2. Used to indicate it is raining heavily as (or as if) the clouds are dumping all their moisture.
   • 1928, Locomotive Engineers Journal, volume 62, page 603:

     To start with, it rained every day as if the bottom would fall out. When morning came the sky would be clear, but around noon it would start raining and rain until midnight.

   • 1936, Field and Stream, volume 41, page 39:

     […] As it started to rain, we stopped and put on raincoats, before the bottom fell out, as is often the case in this locality.

   • 1946, Mary King O'Donnell, Those Other People, page 114:

     Both looked again at the sky. 'By cacky!' Merlin said. The bottom's going to fall out in about two minutes. I'll just about make it to the office. He hurried away. […] rain spattered the sidewalk for a minute, and then the sky opened. All over the city rain crashed down […]

   • 1979, The Blood of Paradise, page 204:

     Harry looked at the sky and said, "Showers, my ass. In about an hour the bottom's going to fall out." The clouds were piling up now and the breeze had moved round to the south.

   • 1992, Georgia State Bar Journal, volume 29, page 156:

     […] rain. About a mile down the road, it started. At first it was a [little ...] Then, all of a sudden, the bottom fell out. The watery freight of the clouds released itself in those sheets of opaque gray that only southern summer storms can produce […]

   • 2026, Amie Louellen, Southern Nights: 2 Contemporary Romances:

     Roxanne […] watched the rain pour off the sides of the funeral tent like a miniature Niagra Falls. The flood had started early that morning, tapering off as the mourners gathered at the gravesite before the bottom fell out again.