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

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

That's sad in some respects but, in another sense, allows the shows’ creators to bring the series to a worthy end as opposed to forcing it to shamble onward long past relevance.

From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2019

We approached the lonely inn as ragged ghouls shamble up to a gravekeeper’s door.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

For Mr. Craighead, the British army was his escape from the shambles of his childhood in northern England.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Power outages have been a feature of life for years in Cuba, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of dilapidated Soviet-era plants, is in shambles.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

"As a still developing country we have limited containment capacity... Our public health sector is in shambles," said a nurse in Nairobi, who asked for anonymity.

From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026

Behind the scenes, Gibbard’s personal life was in shambles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

But after years of war it was in shambles and had to be shut down.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

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

Meanwhile, as Kyoto shambled on, the horizon receded.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 24, 2015

As a stripling in his late 70s, he shambled convincingly as the 87-year-old Firs in the Taper's 2006 revival of "The Cherry Orchard."

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2015

Eventually, a police officer shambled across the tarmac and returned my documents.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 2, 2014

He shambled to his feet grinning furtively, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

And I'm shambling through my daily French lessons not because I have to, and not even because I hope they help my brain stay a little bit sharper.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 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

Arkin found the ideal foil for his unique brand of neurotic intensity in the shambling Peter Falk, and in director Arthur Hiller’s zany comedy, the two deliver a master class in odd-couple chemistry.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2023

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

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

He could no longer stand the rooms where Antonapoulos had lived, and he rented a place in a shambling boardinghouse not far from the center of the town.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers