boom or bust

Definitions

1. 1

   Alternative form of boom and bust, a pattern of great prosperity followed by recession

   • I don't know if it would work out that way, but I know the grocery store would “boom or bust.”
   • After the war, it will be boom or bust! The United States kept laissez-faire too long and it let us drift into a precarious predicament.
2. 2

   Alternative form of boom-and-bust, featuring or characterized by a boom and bust cycle.

   • Our industry has always been a “boom or bust” industry, with a plus or minus 5% swing being the difference between boom and bust.
   • Perhaps it's best, then, for readers not raised in this milieu to imagine Fort Meade and its environs, if not the entire Beltway, as one enormous boom-or-bust company town.

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