shambles

[sham-buhl] Example Sentences Origin

sham·ble

1[sham-buhl]
noun
1.
shambles, (used with a singular or plural verb)
a.
a slaughterhouse.
b.
any place of carnage.
c.
any scene of destruction: to turn cities into shambles.
d.
any scene, place, or thing in disorder: Her desk is a shambles.
2.
British Dialect. a butcher's shop or stall.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English shamel, Old English sc(e)amel stool, table < Late Latin scamellum, Latin scamillum, diminutive of Latin scamnum bench; compare German Schemel

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Shambles is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
Example Sentences
  • The logistical details of dispersal have also been a bit of a shambles.
  • Go while people remember your achievements, not when they blame you for the shambles you leave behind.
  • Once the subsidies ended this year, the economy is in shambles and people have started protesting.
EXPAND
Dictionary.com Unabridged

sham·ble

2[sham-buhl] verb, sham·bled, sham·bling, noun
verb (used without object)
1.
to walk or go awkwardly; shuffle.
noun
2.
a shambling gait.

Origin:
1675–85; perhaps short for shamble-legs one that walks wide (i.e., as if straddling), reminiscent of the legs of a shamble1 (in earlier sense “butcher's table”)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To shambles
Collins
World English Dictionary
shambles (ˈʃæmbəlz)
 
n
1.  a place of great disorder: the room was a shambles after the party
2.  a place where animals are brought to be slaughtered
3.  any place of slaughter or carnage
4.  dialect (Brit) a row of covered stalls or shops where goods, originally meat, are sold
 
[C14 shamble table used by meat vendors, from Old English sceamel stool, from Late Latin scamellum a small bench, from Latin scamnum stool]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

shambles
late 15c., "meat or fish market," from schamil "table, stall for vending" (c.1300), from O.E. scomul, sceamel "stool, footstool, table for vending," an early W.Gmc. borrowing (cf. O.S. skamel, M.Du. schamel, O.H.G. scamel, Ger. schemel) from L. scamillus "low stool," ultimately a dim. of scamnum "stool,
EXPAND
bench," from PIE base *skabh- "to prop up, support." In English, sense evolved to "slaughterhouse" (1540s), "place of butchery" (1590s), and "confusion, mess" (1901).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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