shambolic

[ sham-bol-ik ]

adjective

, Chiefly British Informal.

1. very disorganized; messy or confused:

   I’ve had a shambolic year, the worst ever.

shambolic

/ ʃæmˈbɒlɪk /

adjective

1. informal.
   completely disorganized; chaotic

Word History and Origins

Origin of shambolic¹

First recorded in 1960–65; alteration of shambles (in the sense “a disordered place”); probably on the model of symbolic ( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of shambolic¹

C20: irregularly formed from shambles

Example Sentences

At the same time, the freedom-loving West has, by and large, been shambolic in its floundering efforts at suppressing one variant after another.

From Time

Nearby sat Jonathan De Wolf, the shambolic culinary director of the company Skenes founded, Saison Hospitality, and also Ilya Fushman, a physicist and big-time venture capitalist who happened to be Skenes’s regular hunting and fishing buddy.

From Outside Online

It may be shambolic, shameless emotional grandstanding, but it is oddly moving, despite the ruthless history edit.

From The Daily Beast

Compston opened with a sequence of shows, including one of the brilliant shambolic Manhattan artist, the late Dan Asher.

From The Daily Beast

This is just more symbolic (and shambolic) politics of rage.

From The Daily Beast

This shambolic mess of a man in Florida may be able to tell Selig whether his testing regimen is working at all.

From The Daily Beast

In the pantheon of self-destructive, shambolic, rock-star dandies, Johnny Thunders is the ne plus ultra.

From The Daily Beast