death spiral

noun4

1. •
   The downward, corkscrew-motion of a disabled aircraft which is unrecoverably headed for a crash.

   • The only way to account for it is a structural breakup in flight, a stall, a spin, a death spiral as we call it. — 1999
2. •
   (figurative) The situation or course of action of one who is on a path toward some sort of inevitable catastrophic failure; a negative feedback loop.

   • But what followed for Lozano, his grieving family claims, was a death spiral into infantilism and madness. — 1992
3. •
   A manoeuvre in which a male skater spins in place while holding one hand of his female skating partner as she circles around him with one skate on the ice and one leg extended outward parallel to the ice surface, all the while slowly lowering herself until her back almost touches the ice surface.

   • There are four types of death spirals, named for the edge on which the lady is skating—forward outside, forward inside, back outside, or back inside. — 2002
4. •
   Synonym of ant mill (“a phenomenon where a group of army ants, separated from the main foraging party, lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle and eventually dying of exhaustion.”).