buckle under

buckle under idiom
Give way, collapse owing to stress, as in One more heavy snowfall and the roof may buckle under, or She buckled under the strain of two jobs. [Late 1500s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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