debacle
Americannoun
-
a general breakup or dispersion; sudden downfall or rout.
The revolution ended in a debacle.
-
a complete collapse or failure.
- Synonyms:
- calamity, catastrophe, fiasco, ruin, disaster
-
a breaking up of ice in a river.
-
a violent rush of waters or ice.
noun
-
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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of debacle
1795–1805; < French débâcle, derivative of débâcler to unbar, clear, equivalent to dé- dis- 1 + bâcler to bar ≪ Latin baculum stick, rod
Explanation
Use debacle to refer to a fiasco, disaster, or great failure. If several dogs run onto the field during the big baseball game, tripping players and chewing up the bases, you can call the whole event a debacle. Debacle is sometimes used to describe a military defeat. If your army retreats, that's one thing. If your army is outmaneuvered and ends up huddled in a valley, surrounded on all sides by the enemy, forced to sing 90s sitcom theme songs by their savage captors — that's a debacle. Debacle comes from the French débâcler, "to clear," — the prefix des- means "completely, utterly" and the verb bacler means "to block."
Vocabulary lists containing debacle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To their credit, after the debacle, members of the U.S. team didn’t complain about anything being rigged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Your editorial gives great historical background on the Iran debacle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
But while England will be confident of securing a morale-boosting win after their Ashes debacle in Australia over the winter, a number of former players have criticised the surface at the home of cricket.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
A former German transport minister faces a perjury trial related to a failed scheme to charge foreign motorists highway tolls, a debacle that cost the government hundreds of millions of euros.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Shin and I met for the first time on the day after that balloon debacle.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Perhaps the biggest humiliation — at least until the recent twin debacles of the Freedom 250 implosion and the Kennedy Center ruling — was the Super Bowl halftime show.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
As the many debacles over inheritances show, it can often get worse as we get older.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
Spy agencies saw profound implications in the recent debacles, far beyond public humiliation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
The debacles “may have repercussions on the financial system more broadly,” warns junk bond guru Marty Fridson, chief executive officer of FridsonVision High Yield Strategy.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Undoubtedly it will finally be repressed, but the danger of fresh debacles is weighing constantly on the country.
From History of the World War An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War by March, Francis Andrew
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
