Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A scene or condition of complete disorder or ruin: "The economy was in a shambles” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
- n. Great clutter or jumble; a total mess: made dinner and left the kitchen a shambles.
- n. A place or scene of bloodshed or carnage.
- n. A scene or condition of great devastation.
- n. A slaughterhouse.
- n. Archaic A meat market or butcher shop.
Wiktionary
- n. a scene of great disorder or ruin
- n. a great mess or clutter
- n. a scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation
- n. a slaughterhouse
- n. archaic a butcher's shop
- v. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of shamble.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a condition of great disorder
- n. a building where animals are butchered
Etymologies
- From Old English scamul. A borrowing from Vulgar Latin scamellum, diminutive of Latin scamnum ("bench"). (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English shamel, shambil, place where meat is butchered and sold, from Old English sceamol, table, from Latin scabillum, scamillum, diminutive of scamnum, bench, stool. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the defense of droopy faced Christine, her life is in shambles from the start.”
“If I take up space here writing all the other theories that were once, supposedly, absolute and the foundation of all knowledge and which are now tottering if not in shambles, I'll say nothing else.”
[GUEST POST] Sarah A. Hoyt on The Death of Science Fiction: It Ain't Over Till The Fat Droid Sings
“With the private sector in shambles, the Federal government is the only one with enough juice left to fix anything.”
“BRIEF SYNOPSIS: With his life, and mind, in shambles after an industrial accident, Edgar Freemantle retreats to an island in Florida, where both the island, and Edgar, are deeper and darker than he had imagined.”
“Obama, as did Reagan, inherited an economy in shambles, and it will take a few years to get the rate down.”
“The GOP is in shambles, I LOVE IT! annie against biased news”
“I mean, hell, if I was accused of molesting children, had a face falling apart, a career in shambles, and had become a mockery of my former self, I'd be on drugs too.”
“I don't see an argument here that the economy was in shambles until Dole and Gingrich took power in the Congress.”
Did the Bush Tax Cut Fail?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“An educational system based on survival of the fittest competition now in shambles:”
Think Progress » Bill’s Late Father Irving Kristol: ‘My Poor Son Has Got It Wrong Again’
“The State budgets are in shambles and taxes and fees are going though the roof, the federal debt is at a record of near 13 trillion dollars.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shambles’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
writeoff, wreck, bust, washout, turkey, untergang, undoing, total loss, flop, muck up, louse-up, goof-up and 156 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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katiefallwest's Words
facetious, hallows, snarky, literati, cantankerous, gryphon, esoteric, fortuitous, impetus, ubiquitous, muggle, colour and 144 more...
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sillygoose's Words
nefarious, waffle, dilettante, love, obstreperous, suggestible, fodder, plucky, trajectory, eclectic, juggernaut, demure and 115 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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conceptwriter's Words
sloth, jackass, dickhead, technostalgic, futuristic, enigma, impact, addict, nasty, premium, extraordinaire, yearning and 262 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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simple & useful15
handsomely, fleshed-out, perpetually, consorting, blood relation, cubistic, implausibly, tom swifties, coiffed, progeny, deconstructed, humdrum and 93 more...
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thegirlnextfloor's list
autumnal, avalanche, silhouette, antique, abysmal, scorch, sonic, surge, symmetry, whisper, penchant, dissipate and 349 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2014 more...
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GRE 3500 S
saccharine, sacrilegious, sacrosanct, sagacious, sage, salient, salutary, salvo, sanctimonious, sanguine, sap, sardonic and 138 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shambles.
joanwinnek "A stone post rose in the midst, to which the oxen had formerly been tied for baiting with dogs to make them tender before they were killed in the adjoining shambles. --Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge Feb 22, 2012
maesepedro I liked this word anyway but a colleague has just told me that it is also the name for a drink consisting of champagne mixed with Red Bull, which I've never had but which sounds like a deadly combination, and which would be entirely deserving of this name. Jul 18, 2008