shambles

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmbl̩z/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -æmbl̩z

shambles (countable and uncountable, plural shambles)

1. (countable, uncountable) A scene of great disorder or ruin.
   • 1989 March 15, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes:

     Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you at least take the blame?

2. (countable) A great mess or clutter.

   This bedroom is a shambles.

3. (countable) A scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation.
4. (countable) A slaughterhouse.
5. (countable, archaic) A butcher's shop.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 10:25:

     Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

   • 1729, [Jonathan Swift], A Modest Proposal […], third edition, Dublin: Weaver Bickerton, published 1730, page 12:

     AS to our City of Dublin, Shambles may be appointed for this Purpoſe, in the moſt convenient Parts of it, and Butchers we may be aſſured will not be be wanting; […]

• omnishambles
• shambolic
• shambolism
• shambly

shambles

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of shamble

• “shambles”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “shambles”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.