Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Chiefly British Slang Disorderly or chaotic: "[The country's] transportation system is in a shambolic state” ( London Sunday Times).
Wiktionary
- adj. UK, Australia, slang chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (British slang) disorderly or chaotic
Etymologies
- 1970. shambles + -ic (“(adjective)”), plus interconsonantal -o-, to avoid /mbl/ consonant cluster. (Wiktionary)
- Probably from alteration of shambles. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the days leading up to their defence review and overall government cuts package, David Cameron, George Osborne and the defence secretary, Liam Fox, all tore into what they described as the shambolic and chaotic state of the defence budget.”
“Our household is shambolic, which is why there was no milk.”
“Labour accuses coalition of 'shambolic' counter-terrorism review”
The Guardian: Coalition cuts being made on basis of 'hunches', says Tory-linked thinktank
“The Financial Times called the event "shambolic" as if only a shaman could decode it.”
The Huffington Post: Danny Schechter: Investigate This: Why Did the Market Tank?
“The Tories seized on the revelation today as as proof of Labour's "shambolic" approach to party finances.”
“A senior Army officer said that the ammunition crisis was "shambolic" and came at the worst possible time for the Army.”
“The correct word would probably be 'shambolic' although you would have trouble rhyming it with another word.”
“Revenue Service (Sars) for the "shambolic" state of its financial accounts.”
“Thursday said he could not guarantee that the 1999 elections would not be as "shambolic" as the 1994 elections, when days elapsed before the results were announced.”
“First Minister Peter Robinson described their performance as "shambolic".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shambolic’.
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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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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 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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Cool Words
Words I'd like to see enter common usage.
fricatrice, inchoate, imparlance, apothegm, ductile, parley, frisson, quiescent, redolent, insouciance, feckless, caviling and 25 more...
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Arcades Ambo
arcades ambo, bamboo, ambo, amboyna, bambino, Amboise, framboise, dithurambos, Rambo, flamboyant, gamboge, mambo and 33 more...
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bolics
shambolic, parabolic, anabolic, diabolical, diabolic, catabolic, symbolic, metabolic, hyperbolic, carbolic acid, amphibolic, ecbolic and 9 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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....the prison library
// god mandated attempt to realign with the timeless forces of the universe via remastered locution //
desultory, dénouement, demesne, dalliance, chatoyant, antechamber, akimbo, cacography, germane, cuboid, miasma, mordant and 89 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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Sound or sequence
dulcimer, borborygmi, ecchymosis, scrivener, fustilugs, zarf, bawdyhouse, googleable, archfiend, gymkhana, cuckoopint, pilpul and 104 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shambolic.
Casey "The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles." From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Sep 21, 2011
hernesheir "It’s not hard to see what Banksy saw in this chatty bamboozler, with his shambolic energy, paint-spattered jeans, showstopping displays of humility and racoonish pallor. He is a dead ringer for the young Stanley Kubrick — or maybe a Gallic John Belushi, porkpie hat pushed back jauntily on his head, his heavy-lidded eyes containing just a hint of panic, as if expecting police to arrive any moment and take him away." Source and author of this quote. Feb 27, 2010
yarb I had no idea this was specifically British, damnit! Increasingly I'm understanding how little I'm understood. Apr 10, 2008
john "His manner is not stilted but what the English sometimes call 'shambolic'--chaotic or disorganized--even when he is riding the bicycle that he often uses to get around London."
The New Yorker, Capital Fellows, April 4, 2008, pg. 26. Apr 10, 2008