- present tense form of shamble (3rd person singular).
shambles
Britishnoun
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a place of great disorder
the room was a shambles after the party
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a place where animals are brought to be slaughtered
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any place of slaughter or carnage
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dialect a row of covered stalls or shops where goods, originally meat, are sold
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.
Vocabulary lists containing shambles
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 7–11
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"A Modest Proposal," Vocabulary from the satire
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The Odyssey
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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.
Jeffrey’s wife, known as Shambles, operates the puppets from behind the curtain, while wearing their 5-year-old daughter, known as Crumbo, in a sling.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2026
The Shambles, a butcher shop/bar in Maple Leaf, is one of the big openings this season.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2018
The state of the NHS concerns the Daily Mail, which brands it a "National Health Shambles".
From BBC • Dec. 12, 2013
Another York torchbearer is 34-year-old Luke Young from Dishforth, who will carry the flame along The Shambles.
From BBC • Jun. 18, 2012
Hardly less picturesque than The Shambles is the Petergate, and no more typical bits of old-time England may be found anywhere than these two ancient lanes.
From British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, Wales And Scotland by Murphy, Thomas Dowler
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.
