be on a collision course

Of a person, group, or object, to be on a certain path to conflict, collision, destruction, or ruin with someone or something else. The radical coalition is set to be on a collision course with the majority government this year. Little did the passengers know that their train was on a collision course with disaster. With all those lies that jerk has told, he's on a collision course with disaster—just sit back and enjoy the ride!

See also: collision, course, on

head-on collision

1. A crash in which the front side of two vehicles, especially automobiles, collide while moving in opposite directions. Two cars got into a head-on collision last night because the driver of one of the cars and drifted into oncoming traffic. The cyclist somehow survived the head-on collision with the bus that sent him over his handlebars. A: "When you drive a big truck like Joe does, you're lucky enough to escape a head-on collision with minimal damage." B: "I know, it probably saved his life."

2. An incident in which one crashes into someone or something else headfirst. Both team's trainers rushed onto the field after the runner and catcher had a brutal head-on collision at home plate. Now that the baby's toddling around, I'm constantly worried that she's going to have a head-on collision with the edge of the coffee table. You like my black eye? Ugh, I slipped on the icy steps last night and had a head-on collision with the railing.

on a collision course

Of a person, group, or object, on a certain path to conflict, collision, destruction, or ruin with someone or something else. The radical left-wing coalition is set to be on a collision course with the majority conservative government this January. Little did the passengers know that they were riding a train on a collision course with disaster.

See also: collision, course, on

on a collision course

adopting an approach that is certain to lead to conflict with another person or group.

This phrase is also used literally to mean ‘going in a direction that will lead to a violent crash with another moving object or person’.

See also: collision, course, on

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

be on a colˈlision course (with somebody/something)

1 be in a situation which is almost certain to cause a disagreement or dispute: I was on a collision course with my boss over the sales figures.
2 be moving in a direction in which it is likely that you will crash into somebody/something: The ship was on a collision course with a huge iceberg.

See also: collision, course, on

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

See also:

References in periodicals archive

1); the most abundant of these ions were isolated and their collisionally induced dissociation (CID) product ions spectra were obtained.

Vasoprotective activity of standardized Achillea millefolium extract

The following parameters were used: nebulizer gas, 13 L/min; curtain gas, 12 L/min; ion spray voltage, -4,500 V; desolvation temperature, 450[degrees]C; collisionally activated dissociation gas, 8 L/min; declustering potential, -12 V; focusing potential, -180 V; entrance potential, -8 V; collision energy, -45 V; and collision cell exit potential, -51 V.

Accumulation and depuration of yessotoxin in two bivalves

Normally the OIII emission comes from collisionally excited lines of oxygen and the reasons for no OIII emission in this case could be either a low temperature central star that is not emitting enough high energy photons to excite the nebula, or a high density nebula where the energy levels that produce the OIII lines are getting collisionally de-excited before they have a chance to emit the photons, a process called damping.

Observations of NGC 40

The Japan Aero space Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa spacecraft revealed this near-Earth asteroid to be a classic example of a rubble pile, an aggregate of collisionally disrupted blocks of rock barely held together by gravity (S&T: September 2006, page 34).

How to deflect a hazardous asteroid: if astronomers ever find an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, here's what we could do to prevent a catastrophic impact

"Collisionally induced cohesion is one process by which small particles may coagulate and large particles may grow in size," the researchers suggest.

From ring particles to whole planets

A second set of emission lines was used to estimate abundances and can be split into two categories: (a) collisionally excited lines ([OIII]4363, 4959, 5007 [Angstrom], [SII]6717, 6731 [Angstrom], [NII]5755, 6548, 6583 [Angstrom]) to estimate physical properties, like electronic density and temperature and ionic abundances; and (b) recombination lines of CII and OII (and others) to estimate ionic abundances.

Observing and reducing IFUs: integral and PMAS--properties of the ionized gas in HH 202