shamble

¹ American  

[sham-buhl] / ˈʃæm bəl /

noun

1. (used with a singular or plural verb) shambles,

   1. a slaughterhouse.

   2. any place of carnage.

   3. any scene of destruction.

      to turn cities into shambles.

   4. any scene, place, or thing in disorder.

      Her desk is a shambles.

2. British Dialect. a butcher's shop or stall.

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shamble ² American  

[sham-buhl] / ˈʃæm bəl /

verb (used without object)

shambles, present (3rd person singular) shambled, past participle, past shambling present participle

1. to walk or go awkwardly; shuffle.

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noun

1. a shambling gait.

shamble British  

/ ˈʃæmbəl /

verb

1. (intr) to walk or move along in an awkward or unsteady way

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noun

1. an awkward or unsteady walk

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• shambling
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• shambling
  present
• shambled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• shamble
  simple
• shambles
  simple
• have shambled
  perfect
• has shambled
  perfect
• am shambling
  progressive
• are shambling
  progressive
• is shambling
  progressive
• have been shambling
  perfect progressive
• has been shambling
  perfect progressive

Past

• shambled
  simple
• had shambled
  perfect
• was shambling
  progressive
• were shambling
  progressive
• had been shambling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will shamble
  simple
• will have shambled
  perfect
• will be shambling
  progressive
• will have been shambling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of shamble¹

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

Origin of shamble²

1675–85; perhaps short for shamble-legs one that walks wide (i.e., as if straddling), reminiscent of the legs of a shamble ¹ (in earlier sense “butcher's table”)

Explanation

When you shamble down the street, you move slowly and shuffle your feet. People who shamble along are usually tired, elderly, or sad. An exhausted hiker might shamble along the final mile of trail after weeks of walking, and your grandfather might be the speediest one in his nursing home, passing up the residents who shamble along with their walkers. A kindergarten teacher might call to her class, "Don't shamble! Pick up your feet and let's go to the library!" Shamble probably comes from the outdated adjective that means "ungainly or awkward."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shamble shambles shambled shambling

In my review, I praised the conviction of Gunn’s soupy sci-fi spectacle, writing: “Whatever this sweet, surreal sci-fi shamble is that Gunn has created, everyone here seems to believe ardently in it.”

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2023

Drawing from Korean folktale and Chung’s expertise as a Slavic literature professor, the narratives here shamble and ooze across a porous divide between highbrow absurdism and lowbrow jump scare.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2022

There is an enjoyable strain of LA neo-noirs such as Inherent Vice, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Under the Silver Lake where doofus would-be detectives shamble into morally murky conspiracies.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2020

Even as its various subplots shamble on, the novel keeps reminding us about the rising conflation of reality and fiction.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 3, 2019

Once, Tendai looked behind to see one of the vlei people detach himself from the wall and shamble over to the cart.

From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer

His Bedouin ancestors earned great wealth pearl diving—until foreign farmed pearls tanked the market and left the local economy in shambles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

Videos show horrifying, but now predictable, images of entire blocks flattened and basic infrastructure in shambles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

He said that his life was in shambles.

From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2026

He has said it was necessary because her life was "in shambles and she was in physical, emotional, mental and financial distress".

From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026

His business in shambles, he decided he had nothing to lose by following his dream of a full-time writing career.

From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow

A dozen dolphins leaped and spun alongside the boat as Capt. Sean Rubino — known to everyone as Bobby Hill for the cartoon character he resembles — shambled down to chum the water.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2022

The group sometimes shambled into a free-flowing rubato right in the middle of a fast tune, but it maintained conviction, and avoided melodrama.

From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2018

In the title story, adman Bill Whitman — note the surname — dishes a contemplative collage of ex-wives and ex-friends, a resigned and almost free-associative appraisal of his shambled past.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2018

Meanwhile, as Kyoto shambled on, the horizon receded.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 24, 2015

“Well, I didn’t know that. I had only feebly shambled out there to rest a while. Occasionally a pedestrian happened along. Unfortunately for us, they did not seem to be in hot dog moods.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

She seemed to be everything that I, a shambling, spit up-stained wreck, was not.

From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2024

The post, from someone claiming to work at Boeing, described the production of Boeing's 737 planes as "a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen".

From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2024

A shambling, melancholic truth-teller, with a talent for riling up censors, Levant said things that weren’t supposed to be spoken aloud on national TV.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2023

The shambling 6-foot-4-inch frame that he diminishes by caving in his chest.

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

James' chubby face was set and unsmiling as Major continued his imitation, scratching his nose, pouting his lips, and shambling loosely like a puppet at the end of jerking strings.

From "The Contender" by Robert Lipsyte