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

Explanation

Originally a word for a slaughterhouse, shambles now usually means "one heck of a mess," as in "You were supposed to clean your room, but it's still a shambles!" When the job market is in a shambles, people have trouble finding work. When a supermarket is in a shambles, there might be melons and milk spilled all over the floor. If everyone in a classroom is talking and yelling at once, the class is a shambles because no one can hear each other or get any work done. People say things are "in shambles" or "a shambles" — they mean the same thing. However you say it, a shambles is chaotic, disorderly, out of hand, and off the hook — a major, five-alarm mess.

Example Sentences

He said that his life was in shambles.

From Slate • Apr. 19, 2026

Experts say these policy shifts have broken a student loan system that was already in shambles, leaving nearly 45 million borrowers, disproportionately women, in financial and emotional distress.

From Salon • Mar. 17, 2026

Cuba's ageing electricity generation system is in shambles, with daily power outages of up to 20 hours the norm in parts of the island, which lacks the fuel needed to generate power.

From Barron's • Mar. 16, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 2026

The room where the meeting had taken place was a shambles.

From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi

Related Words

• disarray