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

1. To disintegrate, to break into pieces.

   My old briefcase is falling apart. I'll have to buy a new one.

   • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France‎:

     England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage.

2. (idiomatic) To be emotionally in crisis.

   As a result of being addicted to heroin, she was falling apart.

• (break into pieces through being in a dilapidated state) break, break apart, break up, come apart, come apart at the seams, come undone, disintegrate, fall to bits, fall to pieces
• (be emotionally in crisis) crack up

• French: tomber en morceaux
• German: auseinanderfallen
• Italian: cadere a pezzi
• Portuguese: cair aos pedaços
• Russian: распада́ться
• Spanish: despedazarse, desintegrarse, deshacerse, desvencijarse

• German: zusammenbrechen
• Italian: andare a rotoli
• Russian: разва́ливаться
• Spanish: venirse abajo