from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
adjective Disorderly or chaotic.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
adjective UK, Australia, slangchaotic, disorganised or mismanaged
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adjective (British slang) disorderly or chaotic
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Probably from alteration of shambles.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
1970. shambles + -ic (“(adjective)”), plus interconsonantal-o-, to avoid /mbl/ consonant cluster.
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Examples
In the days leading up to their defence review and overall government cuts package, David Cameron, George Osborne and the defence secretary, Liam Fox, all tore into what they described as the shambolic and chaotic state of the defence budget.
Thursday said he could not guarantee that the 1999 elections would not be as "shambolic" as the 1994 elections, when days elapsed before the results were announced.
"His manner is not stilted but what the English sometimes call 'shambolic'--chaotic or disorganized--even when he is riding the bicycle that he often uses to get around London."
"It’s not hard to see what Banksy saw in this chatty bamboozler, with his shambolic energy, paint-spattered jeans, showstopping displays of humility and racoonish pallor. He is a dead ringer for the young Stanley Kubrick — or maybe a Gallic John Belushi, porkpie hat pushed back jauntily on his head, his heavy-lidded eyes containing just a hint of panic, as if expecting police to arrive any moment and take him away." Source and author of this quote.
john commented on the word shambolic
"His manner is not stilted but what the English sometimes call 'shambolic'--chaotic or disorganized--even when he is riding the bicycle that he often uses to get around London."
The New Yorker, Capital Fellows, April 4, 2008, pg. 26.
April 10, 2008
yarb commented on the word shambolic
I had no idea this was specifically British, damnit! Increasingly I'm understanding how little I'm understood.
April 10, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word shambolic
"It’s not hard to see what Banksy saw in this chatty bamboozler, with his shambolic energy, paint-spattered jeans, showstopping displays of humility and racoonish pallor. He is a dead ringer for the young Stanley Kubrick — or maybe a Gallic John Belushi, porkpie hat pushed back jauntily on his head, his heavy-lidded eyes containing just a hint of panic, as if expecting police to arrive any moment and take him away." Source and author of this quote.
February 27, 2010
5814738 commented on the word shambolic
"The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles." From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.
September 21, 2011