crumple

They were at work when the quakes struck, causing high-rise apartment buildings, shopping centers and schools to crumple.

From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026

To wrap a basketball, for example, you’d need to crumple the paper in a horrible mess or cut many pieces and tape them together with unsightly overlaps.

From Slate ● Jan. 21, 2026

His adversaries think he’ll crumple like yesterday’s broadsheet when they turn him away, and are perturbed to realize he’s more like the human equivalent of tissue hanging onto the heel of a shoe.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2025

Joseph executed her role to perfection as she took all the pressure off 33-year-old Dottin, but when she departed with 41 runs still needed, there was some concern that West Indies could crumple.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2024

Any more weight on those shoulders and Gran would crumple to the ground.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

If people and institutions and businesses and government stand up to him, he crumples.

From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026

A piercing scream erupts in the crowd; a woman’s face crumples and flutters, like a paper mask about to disintegrate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023

Mesut's face crumples into tears and he turns away to compose himself.

From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2023

The situation is akin to a car that crumples in a crash: the vehicle absorbs the impact to protect passengers, but it is totaled.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 22, 2023

The greyhound lets go of Fabian, who crumples to the ground, and the dog is off running, first trying to catch the kids, and then alongside them, and then out in front.

From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz

I didn’t feel any affinity with the humanoid that smashed Bolt’s 100-meter record, but found the robot weightlifter that crumpled under a 15kg barbell and staggered into a table very relatable.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

But there is still so much darkness in “The Grapes of Wrath,” especially in its scenes of John Qualen’s Muley Graves, crumpled on the ground, suddenly a squatter on his own piece of land.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

The look on Joe’s face when we first meet him says a lot about his crumpled ambitions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

On Tuesday morning, rescuers at the ruins of what had been a neighbourhood grocery, resumed efforts to recover two store employees who were inside when the building crumpled.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

He almost immediately crumpled downward, the effort of the magic draining him of any strength he had left.

From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack

Videos posted to social media and verified by AFP on Monday showed the catastrophic collapse of a shopping centre in General Santos, and an unoccupied school building crumpling.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

Whether he was laughing, brooding or crumpling into sobs to create one of the most well-known and widely circulated meme GIFs of all time, Van Der Beek’s expressive appeal propelled him to virtually overnight superstardom.

From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026

“I want people to know that we’re just normal people,” Ms. Broadbent, her face crumpling as she fought through tears, told Mr. Johnson.

From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024

Smoke-shrouded rockets suddenly collapse into themselves, as if overheated galaxies crumpling into icy black holes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2023

Then he spoke in a voice like dry, crumpling paper: “I am Theseus.”

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan