shambles
pronunciation
How to pronounce shambles in British English:
UK [ˈʃæmblz]
How to pronounce shambles in American English:
US [ˈʃæmbəlz]
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- Noun:
- a condition of great disorder
- a building where animals are butchered
Word Origin
- shambles (n.)
- early 15c., "meat or fish market," from schamil "table, stall for vending" (c. 1300), from Old English scamol, scomul "stool, footstool" (also figurative); "bench, table for vending," an early Proto-Germanic borrowing (Old Saxon skamel "stool," Middle Dutch schamel, Old High German scamel, German schemel, Danish skammel "footstool") from Latin scamillus "low stool, a little bench," ultimately a diminutive of scamnum "stool, bench," from PIE root *skabh- "to prop up, support." In English, sense evolved from "place where meat is sold" to "slaughterhouse" (1540s), then figuratively "place of butchery" (1590s), and generally "confusion, mess" (1901, usually in plural).
Example
- 1. The development-aid business is a shambles .
- 2. Washington 's own regional trade policy is in something of a shambles .
- 3. Just as damaging are revelations of corruption that lie behind the shambles .
- 4. This shambles , for which corruption , feuding ministries , sapping bureaucracy and shoddy workmanship are all to blame , does not matter to many indians .
- 5. After japan lost the war , geisha dispersed and the profession was in shambles .