Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

tailspin

 noun
     
Related topics: Air
tail‧spin [countable usually singular]
1

in/into a tailspin

in or into a bad situation that keeps getting worse in a way that you cannot control:
Raising interest rates could send the economy into a tailspin.
2TTA when a plane falls through the air, with the front pointing downwards and the back spinning in a circle
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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