andare a rotoli

andàre a rotoli (first-person singular present vàdo a rotoli, first-person singular past historic andài a rotoli, past participle andàto a rotoli, first-person singular future andrò a rotoli, first-person singular subjunctive vàda a rotoli, second-person singular imperative vài a rotoli or và' a rotoli, auxiliary èssere)

1. (idiomatic) to fall apart
   • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 12, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:

     Un'altra verità era che mi sentivo obbligato a non azzardare mosse avventate mentre dovevo fare i conti con tanti fronti della crisi economica ancora aperti, uno dei quali era la necessità di impedire che l'industria automobilistica americana andasse a rotoli.

     What was also true was that I felt constrained from making any rash moves while I still had so many fronts of the economic crisis to deal with—including the need to keep the U.S. auto industry from driving over a cliff.

     (literally, “Another truth was that I felt obliged not to risk rash moves while I had to reckon with many still-open fronts of the economic crisis, one of which was the necessity of keeping the American automobile industry from falling apart.”)