the fabric of sth, disintegration

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Essay

Jumbo Lit

Reviewed by JOE QUEENAN

For years, I’d been reading enormous books while the house, the van, the very fabric of our lives kept disintegrating.

fabric (STRUCTURE) Hide phonetics
noun
the fabric of sth the structure or parts especially of a social unit or a building:
the fabric of society
Unhappiness was woven into the natural fabric of people's lives.
We must invest in the fabric of our hospitals and start rebuilding them.

disintegrate Hide phonetics
verb [I]
1 to become weaker or be destroyed by breaking into small pieces:
The spacecraft disintegrated as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The Ottoman Empire disintegrated into lots of small states.

2 to become much worse:
The situation disintegrated into chaos.

disintegration Hide phonetics
noun [U]
social disintegration
the gradual disintegration of family values