burst the bubble

B

burst the bubble,
also, the bubble burst

Meaning

  • the sudden end of a very happy or successful period
  • to disapprove of someone’s beliefs about something
  • breaking one’s delusions and false expectations
  • doing or saying something to someone to show them that what they want to happen has no valid chance of happening
  • it could be used when there is a need to free someone from false faith or an exaggerated sense of optimism

Example Sentence

  1. She looked so happy about getting married that her sister just couldn’t burst the bubble.
  2. I detest being in a position to burst the bubble, but your products are of low quality.
  3. The parents did not want to burst the bubble, but the children deserved to know the truth.
  4. Listen, Jim, I hate to burst your bubble, but I saw her with someone else.
  5. The country’s economic strength was booming, and then the bubble burst with the crash of the stock market in the last decade.

Origin

The idiom was first recorded in The Monthly Mirror reflecting Men and Manners Vol. VII (January 1810) that reads:

“Of this wretched entertainment, as it is at best to rational minds, the public have now seen the worst, and it has gone nigh to burst the bubble.”

The exact origin of this idiom is not known. But there are many imaginative but fake theories available on the Internet.

One is bubblegum or chewing gum theory, which says that the idiom’s origin is related to the invention of bubble gum, and it refers to bursting a bubblegum bubble that a kid is blowing with his mouth.

The second theory suggests that the expression comes from the disappointment individuals (kids) feel after soap bubbles they literally blew imminently burst. Hence the practical usage of the phrase, ‘burst the bubble.’

Both of these theories are mere hilarious fantasy.

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