falter, faltering response, epitomize, dirt-cheap beef bowl, COVID-19 Defenses Finally Faltered

Why Taiwan's COVID-19 Defenses Finally Faltered | Time
https://time.com › World › Taiwan
 — How a False Sense of Security, and a Little Secret Tea, Broke Down Taiwan's COVID-19 Defenses.

Spain Becomes Latest Epicenter of Coronavirus After a Faltering Response By RAPHAEL MINDER The government declared a state of emergency Friday, days after it allowed mass gatherings in the capital and cases jumped to 4,200.

【 时事大家谈：中国为何广树“敌对势力”? 】

中共党媒人民日报旗下的环球时报近日主办主题为“世界纠结，中国求索” China's Quest in a Faltering World 的年会。在一场有关“敌对实力在多大范围内存在”的讨论中，有出席者提出“穿军装的敌人不敢来了，穿西装的敌人有不少”的说法，并表示敌对势力“试图挖空动摇中国的核心价值观，以反腐为名利用民愤来攻击党，仇官仇党仇军……”

At Royal Ascot, an American Horse Falters

By JOE DRAPE

Animal Kingdom, a winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Dubai World Cup, lost his final race at one of the oldest and most elegant events in all of horse racing.

Special report: Tsunami town epitomizes Japan Inc's dilemmasReuters
Tales of disaster, abandonment and rebuilding are hardly new to Kamaishi, and its history offers clues as to how industrial Japan can be expected to cope with the hollowing out that many fear will speed up in the wake of the disaster and the yen's ...

Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

A beef bowl at Yoshinoya.

By HIROKO TABUCHI

Published: January 29, 2010

TOKYO — The broiled meat is tender and the rice is silky-smooth. But as Japan’s economic recovery falters, beef bowls have come to symbolize one of its most pressing woes: deflation.
Japan’s big three beef bowl restaurant chains, the country’s answer to hamburger giants like McDonald’s, are in a price war. It is a sign, many people say, of the dire state of Japan’s economy that even dirt-cheap beef bowl restaurants must slash their already low prices to keep customers.
The battle has also come to epitomize a destructive pattern repeated across Japan’s economy. By cutting prices hastily and aggressively to attract consumers, critics say, restaurants decimate profits, squeeze workers’ pay and drive the weak out of business — a deflationary cycle that threatens the nation’s economy.

SunTrust Banks's faltering financial health has led banking analyst Richard X. Bove to declare the Atlanta-based bank "now worth more dead than alive" and likely a takeover target for the likes of a JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo.




But the lesson Stone can offer us today is, I would say, mostly a reminder that we will have to rise to our own occasion, and not expect heroes from the past to guide our faltering steps. A useful reminder, unfortunately. In any case, a truth.

Definition of falter

verb

[no object]

• lose strength or momentum:the music faltered, stopped, and started up again (as adjectivefaltering)his faltering career
• speak hesitantly: [with direct speech]:‘A-Adam?’ he faltered
• move unsteadily or hesitantly:he faltered and finally stopped in mid-stride

Derivatives

falterer
noun

falteringly

adverb

Origin:

late Middle English (in the senses 'stammer' and 'stagger'): perhaps from the verb fold¹ (which was occasionally used of the faltering of the legs or tongue) + -ter as in totter

falter 
verb [I]
1 to lose strength or purpose and stop, or almost stop:
The dinner party conversation faltered for a moment.
Her friends never faltered in their belief in her.
Nigel's voice faltered and he stopped speaking.

2 to move awkwardly as if you might fall:
The nurse saw him falter and made him lean on her.

faltering
adjective
She took a few faltering steps.
This legislation is designed to stimulate the faltering economy.



dirt-cheap/DIRT CHEAP
Very inexpensive, as in Their house was a real bargain, dirt cheap. Although the idea dates back to ancient times, the precise expression, literally meaning "as cheap as dirt," replaced the now obsolete dog cheap. [Early 1800s]

epitomize[e・pit・o・mize]

• 発音記号[ipítəmàiz]

[動](他)

1 ((古))〈人・事などが〉…を縮図的［集約的］に示す；…の典型となる.

2 ((古))〈文学作品などを〉要約する

epitomize a plot
筋の要点を述べる.