hit the buffers informal
hit the skids informal

And that was where his thoughts hit the buffers each time.

At some point the Euro as we know it will hit the buffers.

Five years ago everything hit the buffers, and it became clear how little fundamental reform there had been.

So the spend and borrow regime has now hit the buffers.

It was as if she had hit the buffers.

Multiply the two together and you hit the buffers.

And now we have hit the buffers and need to shed some weight.

Then, at what would normally be the Eureka moment, they hit the buffers with a thud.

Its policy of looking backwards and following what sold well last year or the year before has now hit the buffers.

But when it came to dealing with Railfreight, he said, his ideas hit the buffers.

Russia's stock market has hit the buffers.

The economic doctrine or philosophy favoured during the last 30 years is now hitting the buffers and crumbling from all sides.

The roller coaster has hit the buffers.

They believe that the great European integration dream has hit the buffers and they believe that on balance we are best off out of it.

A proposal from the Foreign Office to include Mark Thatcher in the party hit the buffers because he was out of the country at the time.

This makes Chrome much more nippy until you hit the buffers when your RAM is all used up.

The whole country has been off the rails for decades, and the beloved leader's little choo choo hit the buffers long ago.

The developing world will hit the buffers at some point but as their inter regional demand grows, I would say that event will be post the current period.

A test three days after the train hit the buffers at London's Cannon Street station showed traces of cannabis in driver Maurice Graham, 25.

At 11:57 on 11 January 2007, unit 507019 hit the buffers at West Kirby as it was arriving from Liverpool Central.

In a self regulating system things can and do swing out of control until they hit the buffers, then things gradually re-establish and head back toward a balance.

Many analysts believe the latest ECB lending will end in tears in a year or two when Italy and Spain finally hit the buffers.

Now, when governments are not moving - when the train has hit the buffers in our talks on climate change or other issues - Europe can be the locomotive, driving it forward.

Instead of stopping the train with a planned derailment, the express will still be going full speed when it hits the buffers with all the associated damage it will bring.

Cannon Street was the scene of the Cannon Street station rail crash on 8 January 1991 when a train hit the buffers leaving 2 dead and 248 injured.

So if you have somebody who hit the skids or has done nothing for 30 years it would go down?

One day earlier, though, a different merger hit the skids.

Since the summer buying season the market "has really hit the skids," he said.

I'd heard of hitting the skids, but I never knew before just what it meant.

But the real-estate market hit the skids in the 80's.

"Somebody could, as you say, hit the skids, and 30 years later they have a big comeback."

"If they hit the skids, it would have a very negative impact on stocks," he said.

I said, "You thought she'd just hit the skids, is that it?"

So why then have China's two domestic-share markets hit the skids?

The real questions about Enron's relationship with the administration involve what happened before the energy trader hit the skids.

First, the team hits the skids, putting its playoff hopes in doubt.

But the bottom fell out of the real estate market at the same time the consumer electronics business hit the skids.

And will recently employed recipients be thrown out of work the next time the economy hits the skids?

It's inevitable when a team hits the skids the way St. John's has done.

This spring her business again hit the skids as Americans grew nervous about Mexico.

But if Britain hit the skids, the Community would provide minuscule help.

They got to my position and hit the skids, turned, and scampered back up the hill.

What's this I hear about your hitting the skids?"

He'd represented a string of people who'd put their faith in hitting on sixteen and hit the skids instead.

When his blues singer wife is killed in a night club shooting, Harry's life hits the skids.

The city's real estate market, which hit the skids in the late 80's, has only recently recovered from a serious glut of properties.

Meanwhile, the city's economy was hitting the skids.

Morriss took over a Baylor program that had hit the skids.

"The moment those economies hit the skids," he added, referring to Asia, "this was in the cards."

Shortly after that, said union hits the skids.