Since the 1960s at least, people have been using the word crash, and the extended phrase crash out, to mean “to fall asleep”—especially after a long and tiring day, or as a result of having too much to drink. 

You’ll still find this phrase used in the same way today, but over the decades since it first appeared, crashing out has come to mean a number of other things besides simply resting up. 

A Brief History of Crashing Out

In the drug culture of the 1970s and ‘80s, for instance, crashing out meant much the same as coming down, which describes what happens when the effects of some manner of illicit substance begin to wear off. 

In sporting contexts, crashing out has implied a crushing or unexpected defeat since the 1970s. And now, Gen Z have picked up the term once more and given it a whole new spin in the 21st century. 

The Modern Slang Meaning of Crash Out

In simple terms, as a verb, to crash out today means to act wildly or recklessly, or in a distressed or unexpected manner. Often, it is used to imply that someone is also losing their temper, or spinning wildly and angrily out of control—but it is also just as often used ironically or exaggeratedly, to humorously overstate just how angry or out of control you might actually be in a given situation. 

“If my flight gets delayed, I’m going to crash out,” someone might say, despite having absolutely no genuine intention of actually spiraling out of control. 

An Even Newer Meaning Emerges

As Merriam-Webster points out, hints of this more up-to-date version of crashing out can be found in some earlier attestations of the phrase, and it is noticeably similar to a handful of somewhat older words and expressions, such as freaking out and snapping. 

But it seems the popularity of the new Gen Z version of crashing out can be traced back to Stepped On, a 2017 track by rapper NBA YoungBoy, which featured the line “crash out if I’m nervous.”

Since the early 2020s, however, the phrase has taken on an entirely new spin online and on social media. Here, crash out—or crashout, as a single word—has morphed into a noun, used to describe an argumentative or unpredictable person who goes out of their way to look for fights and arguments. 

This use seems to have emerged first in AAVE, in particular in the southern United States, before spreading elsewhere thanks to the popularity of memes and TikTok videos showing certain individuals “crashing out” in unpredictable, unwise, or altogether spectacular fashion. 

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