Falling Apart at the Seams
Falling apart at the seams has two meanings. First, it can mean that something is failing or being destroyed. It will be completely ruined soon. Another definition is becoming very emotional. A person who is falling apart at the seams is probably crying uncontrollably. “Falling apart at the seams” is synonymous with “coming part at the seams.” The two phrases are interchangeable.
Example 1: Anything that can go wrong with this car has gone wrong. It is falling apart at the seams.
Example 2: He couldn’t deal with the death of his mother and eventually he was falling apart at the seams.
Falling apart at the seams is an allusion to clothing being destroyed. A seam is the connection between two pieces of cloth. Think about the sleeve on your shirt. If the seam were to break, it would destroy your shirt. So, this phrase gives the feeling that everything is going wrong and is in the process of being destroyed.
My Bicycle is Falling Apart at the Seams!
Yesterday I went cycling and my bicycle started falling apart at the seams. My crank arm has been making noise for a couple months and I had some recent issues with my front derailleur, but I didn’t think too much about it. The crank arm attaches the pedals to the front gears. The derailleur keeps the chain on the gears. After about 40kms, I could feel my crank arm becoming loose, so I pulled over and quickly tried putting it back on. Well, that lasted for another 10km before it completely fell off. I had to pull over in a construction area to fix it.
Luckily, I keep tools with me. There are like 3 things that need to fail for the crank arm to come off. There are two tension bolts, a plastic latch and an emergency stopper (more for show than anything else). The plastic latch was completely destroyed, so now I don’t have one of those. But, I did safely reattach the crank arm. I did a better job once I got home. However, when I reattached the crank arm, it reset the position of the chain. So, later in my ride I was changing gears when the chain came off. Normally it isn’t a big deal, but somehow it twisted in a way that took some time to get unstuck. Anyways, I made it home safely and don't worry I didn't fall apart at the seams. I even went for another ride today. 😊
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Reference:
http://www.idioms4you.com/complete-idioms/fall-apart-at-the-seams.html
https://www.idioms.online/come-apart-at-the-seams/
