crash and burn什么意思？

Question

在一篇文章中，我看到：CLODFELTER: "Crash and burn is a good one. Referring to somebody whos very gifted perhaps as an ace."
AA: "Meaning a pilot who shoots down a lot of other planes."
CLODFELTER: "Yeah, but obviously it can refer to an ace corporate executive, ace tennis player, I mean it can refer to many things. The term was first used in a military capacity in World War One."
那说明crash and burn指的是精英者。

又在另一文中看到：No, wait! I didn't mean that literally. When you say that someone is going to
crash and burn, it means that they are going to fail, usually in a very
spectacular or embarrassing way.‘

这里crash and burn又指的失败。

到底是什么意思，是两者都有，还是什么？
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Answer 1

你说得很对，这个词组的广泛应用是因为一部1977年的加拿大电影《Crash 'n' Burn》（也就是你提问中的对话内容来源），1990年又被一部科幻片用作片名。后来多次用在歌曲里面广泛流传。

 

就目前看来，crash and burn 的基本意思有两个：

（词面意思）：飞机或汽车的事故现象描述

（引申意思）：场面“壮丽”的一次失败。例：Poor Chuck really crashed and burned when he made his presentation at the sales meeting.（通常反映了描述者的同情和遗憾，带有很强的“出生未捷身先死”和“壮志未酬”的味道。）

其他例子：

- Gil lost his job and his pension when the company crashed and burned.

- She watched her parents' marriage crash and burn.

 

其实，正如你的理解，crash and burn 包含了“勇敢”、“功败垂成”的意思，但事情的结果是一个 failure。