basket-case

Two decades ago the District was a potholed basket-case that was losing people to the suburbs.

From Economist ● Jan. 12, 2017

While the country's basket-case economy has been a concern for some time, the latter could not have been foreseen.

From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2015

Not bad for stock trading at $5 during the depths of the credit crunch in early 2009, when chief executive Neil Berkett's comment that he had inherited a financial basket-case was fresh in memories.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 5, 2013

Today, after little more than a year of democratic reform, the dominant description of Burma has changed in many circles from basket-case pariah to promising frontier economy.

From Newsweek ● Sep. 17, 2012

The rapidly crumbling situation was deeply humiliating to the Syrians, who eagerly entered the Lebanese imbroglio last summer and broadly advertised their aim of imposing a salutary Pax Syriana on the Arab world's basket-case country.

From Time Magazine Archive

"A lot of other people, you know, you read stories where they become basket cases. To be honest, I'm not a basket case."

From Barron's ● Apr. 26, 2026

But Welch’s legacy took a hit following his retirement as GE went from America’s most-valuable company to a basket case, eventually splitting in three under an outsider’s management.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026

Fifteen years later, Libya remains a basket case of militias, warlords and weak institutions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2025

For years, Scottish football used to look at managerial merry-go-rounds in English football and decry it as a basket case environment, Now, it’s every bit as volatile in this country, if not worse.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2024

“We’ve got over forty-five minutes, darling. Hold your horses. You’re going to turn me into a basket case if you don’t relax. Let’s go pray at the shrine.”

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy