Shambles
//ˈʃæmbəlz// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A scene of great disorder or ruin. countable, uncountable
"Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you at least take the blame?"
- 2 a building where animals are butchered wordnet
- 3 A great mess or clutter. countable
"This bedroom is a shambles."
- 4 a condition of great disorder wordnet
- 5 A scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation. countable
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- 6 A slaughterhouse. countable
- 7 A butcher's shop. archaic, countable
"Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake."
Verb
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of shamble form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Example
More examples"The drunk tourists left the hotel room in shambles after their visit."
Etymology
From Middle English schamels, plural of schamel, from Old English sċeamol, sċamul (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil (“stool, bench”), from Vulgar Latin scamellum, from Latin scamillum (“little bench, ridge”), from Latin scamnum (“bench, ridge, breadth of a field”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.