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

Rot and death would spread through their venerable trunks and crumple their limbs — but their roots and stumps, cradled by the continent’s most ancient mountains, lived on in the sandy, acidic Appalachian soil.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023

Yael and Shachar, at just 11 and 9, have seen such horrors that their small faces crumple into tears again and again.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2023

The police verify this by the crumple pattern and damage to the divider and where the car comes to rest.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

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

From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026

Bynum keeps the camera on her as Jessie crumples her face in her hands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025

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

Leading South America’s slow, grinding march toward Australia, its coastline hits the ocean floor and crumples up like a carpet shoved into a chair- leg.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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

The turning point came midway through the second half, when Swiss striker Breel Embolo crumpled in a heap, apparently the victim of a violent foul.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 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

Large, irregular, corpuscular clouds made of crumpled paper hung over the stage.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

Then her face crumpled up, and she took my cheeks in her hands and kissed them.

From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron

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

"Knowing my son ended up like this, I'm inconsolable, I'm filled with grief," U Hla Aung said, his face crumpling into a sob.

From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2025

But first, she sobs, crumpling into Samuel’s arms while he holds her close.

From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2024

“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

What I remember the most from the day Grans died is Mom literally crumpling to the floor in slow, heaving sobs, holding her stomach like someone had just punched her.

From "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio