shambles

British  

/ ˈʃæmbəlz /

noun

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 a row of covered stalls or shops where goods, originally meat, are sold

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Etymology

Origin of shambles

C14 shamble table used by meat vendors, from Old English sceamel stool, from Late Latin scamellum a small bench, from Latin scamnum stool

Example Sentences

Tortora asks after months in detention and his life in shambles.

From The Wall Street Journal

Having no VAR is a another shambles, who makes these decisions?

From BBC

It had taken only until 6:32 to turn the room into a total shambles.

From Literature

In between the white-ball tours of New Zealand and Sri Lanka came the horrific Ashes series - an all-timer of a shambles.

From BBC

And Iran’s economy is in shambles in the midst of an ongoing water crisis with no relief in sight.

From Salon

Related Words

• disarray