SHAMBLES • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Shambles

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/ʃˈæmbəlz/ Listen

Shambles

noun

A condition of great disorder.

A building where animals are butchered. Synonyms: abattoir, butchery, slaughterhouse.

Shamble

verb

(past & past part. shambled; pres. part. shambling)

Walk by dragging one's feet. Synonyms: scuffle, shuffle. "We heard his feet shuffling down the hall"

noun

Walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet. Synonyms: shambling, shuffle, shuffling.

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Etymology of 'Shambles'

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"Shambles" Quotes from Famous Books

... and I came through yesterday and this morning was most sickening and depressing to both of us. The Australian Aid Post was a perfect shambles, about an acre of stretcher cases, horrible wounds, and all the surroundings soaked with blood. ...

— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson

... may do better," answered the Fleming. "But would your reverence have me dally until the question amongst the garrison be, whether a plump priest or a fat Fleming will be the better flesh to furnish their shambles?" ...

— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... mystery; but the sum would get itself done with the figures now on the slate. On little Aggie's slate the figures were yet to be written; which sufficiently accounted for the difference of the two surfaces. Both the girls struck him as lambs with the great shambles of life in their future; but while one, with its neck in a pink ribbon, had no consciousness but that of being fed from the hand with the small sweet biscuit of unobjectionable knowledge, the other struggled with instincts ...

— The Awkward Age • Henry James

... In him ingratitude you find, A vice peculiar to the kind. The sheep whose annual fleece is dyed, To guard his health, and serve his pride, 30 Forced from his fold and native plain, Is in the cruel shambles slain. The swarms, who, with industrious skill, His hives with wax and honey fill, In vain whole summer days employed, Their stores are sold, their race destroyed. What tribute from the goose is paid! Does not her wing all science aid! ...

— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville

... led like a sheep to the shambles," he declared, "and you go like a sheep. You should have landed in France, where you have friends. Even now it is not too late. A ship could ...

— The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series • Rafael Sabatini

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