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

7 March 2025

INTERTRIGO

(noun) chafing between two skin surfaces that are in contact (as in the armpit or under the breasts or between the thighs)


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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