snafu
- a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation: A ballot snafu in the election led to a recount.
- in disorder; out of control; chaotic: a snafu scheme that simply won't work.
- to throw into disorder; muddle: Losing his passport snafued the whole vacation.
Origin of snafu
Related Words for snafu
misunderstanding, miscalculation, blunder, mix-up, foul-up, mess, confusion, flub, screwup, blooper, slip, error, oversight, bungle, misjudgment, goof-upExamples from the Web for snafu
Contemporary Examples of snafu
SNAFU—“situation normal: all f--ked up,” as soldiers used to say—was the default position for American policy.
So is this snafu an image problem, or is the real problem the reality behind the curtain—a curtain that needed to be pulled back?
And you know what snafu stands for: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.
Historical Examples of snafu
"We're not giving her a chance to snafu the works," Gotch said grimly.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
Everything was in apple-pie order, except for the snafu in Arzachel, Crag thought bitterly.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
snafu
- confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state
- (postpositive) confused or muddled up, as usual
- (tr) US and Canadian to throw into chaos
Word Origin for snafu
Word Origin and History for snafu
1941, U.S. military slang, acronym for situation normal, all fucked up, "an expression conveying the common soldier's laconic acceptance of the disorder of war and the ineptitude of his superiors" ["Oxford English Dictionary"]. As an adjective from 1942. In public explanations the word typically was euphemised to fouled.