debacle
a general breakup or dispersion; sudden downfall or rout: The revolution ended in a debacle.
a complete collapse or failure.
a breaking up of ice in a river.: Compare embacle.
a violent rush of waters or ice.
Origin of debacle
1Other words for debacle
Words Nearby debacle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use debacle in a sentence
There were derelictions and debacles, dreams deferred and hopes dashed.
Want Unity For Real? Then America Needs to Get Back to Facts | Samar Ali, Bill Haslam and Jon Meacham | February 8, 2021 | TimeAfter that debacle, Sanders’ team sought a paid broker to help negotiate the city’s leases and explore other solutions.
How a Volunteer Helped Get the City Into Its Biggest Real Estate Debacle | Lisa Halverstadt | January 29, 2021 | Voice of San DiegoHe wrote a long memo to Monroe describing the need to put out a government statement quickly, thus seizing the narrative and putting the most positive light on the debacle rather than letting the British control the story.
In 1814, British forces burned the U.S. Capitol | Joel Achenbach | January 6, 2021 | Washington PostMeanwhile, the debacle at Stanford Medical Center, where a system to rank potential vaccine recipients managed to ignore frontline doctors, was proof that you could over-engineer the system too.
Without leadership on vaccine rollout, scams are inevitable | Bobbie Johnson | January 6, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewThompson left the city in August following a new set of high-profile debacles.
Real Estate Debacles Loomed Large on Faulconer’s Watch | Lisa Halverstadt | December 10, 2020 | Voice of San Diego
But after Rolling Stone's rape story debacle, how much momentum does the call to ban fraternities have left?
“I believe we are in the hour of the debacle of the institutions, they cannot be any more rotten,” said Padre Goyo.
During this debacle, she read some medical literature on self-dehydration.
The Nurse Coaching People Through Death by Starvation | Nick Tabor | November 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn his post-debacle presser, President Obama told the nation “I hear you.”
Didn't Obama Hear Oregon’s Warning Shot on Immigration? | Doug McIntyre | November 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the event, debacle that it was, Kennedy refused to listen to them.
It was a return to a state of mind comparable to that which had rendered possible the debacle of the Roman Empire.
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind | Herbert George WellsThe German advance which ended in this debacle has been the costliest defeat in point of materials which they have yet suffered.
Our own sthetic movement was killed almost instantaneously by the Wilde debacle.
Modernities | Horace Barnett SamuelBruce Gordon looked at the debacle left behind the drunken, looting mob.
Police Your Planet | Lester del ReyIn the Baltic the situation became very difficult owing first to the Russian revolution and, finally, to the Russian debacle.
The Crisis of the Naval War | John Rushworth Jellicoe
British Dictionary definitions for debacle
/ (deɪˈbɑːkəl, dɪ-) /
a sudden disastrous collapse or defeat, esp one involving a disorderly retreat; rout
the breaking up of ice in a river during spring or summer, often causing flooding
a violent rush of water carrying along debris
Origin of debacle
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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