Englishgo to pieces
Meaning: To fall apart physically or emotionally; to lose one's self-control.
Example: “After the funeral, he went to pieces for a few weeks.”
Origin: Names loss of integrity rather than damage, and the distinction matters. A thing that goes to pieces has not been dented or weakened but has stopped being a single object — most vividly a ship breaking up on rocks, which was the standard disaster image of the period when the phrase entered English and which produces not a wreck but scattered fragments over a wide area. The idiom is attested for physical objects from the 1600s and was extended to people and their composure by the 1800s, carrying the same implication across: what fails is not strength but coherence, the thing that was holding the parts in relation to one another, which is why the collapse is sudden and total rather than gradual.
More English idioms
- go to the dogs To fall into disrepair; to deteriorate.
- go with the flow To take a relaxed attitude towards life.
- golden age A time when something is at its best.
- good Samaritan A person who helps someone in trouble without thought of personal gain.
- grim reaper Death.
- hair's breadth A very narrow amount.
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