SHAMBLES

abattoir, butchery, shambles, slaughterhouse

(noun) a building where animals are butchered

shambles

(noun) a condition of great disorder

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

shambles (plural shambles)

work done in a poor fashion

a scene of great disorder or ruin

a great mess or clutter

a scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation

a slaughterhouse

(archaic) a butcher's shop

Verb

shambles

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of shamble

Source: Wiktionary


SHAMBLE

Sham"ble, n. Etym: [OE. schamel a bench, stool, AS. scamel, sceamol, a bench, form, stool, fr. L. scamellum, dim. of scamnum a bench, stool.]

1. (Mining)

Definition: One of a succession of niches or platforms, one above another, to hold ore which is thrown successively from platform to platform, and thus raised to a higher level.

2. pl.

Definition: A place where butcher's meat is sold. As summer flies are in the shambles. Shak.

3. pl.

Definition: A place for slaughtering animals for meat. To make a shambles of the parliament house. Shak.

Sham"ble, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Shambled; p. pr. & vb. n. Shambling.] Etym: [Cf. OD. schampelen to slip, schampen to slip away, escape. Cf. Scamble, Scamper.]

Definition: To walk awkwardly and unsteadily, as if the knees were weak; to shuffle along.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

12 February 2025

MEGACOLON

(noun) an abnormal enlargement of the colon; can be congenital (as in Hirschsprung’s disease) or acquired (as when children refuse to defecate)


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Coffee Trivia

An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.

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