the sky fell in

English

Phrase

the sky fell in

1. A total disaster occurred.
   • 1990, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Review of the National Drug Control Strategy, page 87:

     Unless we, as a nation, States, cities—not pointing the finger at any one government structure—all of us—unless we are ready to finally look for meaningful, long-term salient, complex answers to a very complex problem, people are going to appear in front of your committee in 1992, and all of you are going to look back on the good old days of 1989, and we do think the sky is falling in today in New York.

   • 2004, Frank Joseph, The Destruction of Atlantis:

     And with the Great Serpent, the sky fell in, and the dry land sank into the sea.

   • 2008, Annie Murray, The Bells of Bournville Green, page 87:

     Cup of tea? As usual! How could anything be usual when the sky had fallen in?

   • 2020, Stewert James, The Penny:

     Oh June, I really want at least one more good year before the sky falls in.

   • 2022, Tony Jordan, The Man Moses: Life Lessons with Moses:

     The sky fell in for European Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, and many others when Hitler came to power.

   • 2023 March 5, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Bizarrely, United were right in this game for 43 minutes, with Fernandes and Rashford missing arguably the game's two best chances before Gakpo scored and the sky fell in on Ten Hag's team.

Usage notes

This phrase can be found with other inflections of the verb, such as "the sky falls in", "the sky is falling in", and "the sky had fallen in".