Definitions

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, slang chaotic, 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.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word shambolic.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "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

  • I had no idea this was specifically British, damnit! Increasingly I'm understanding how little I'm understood.

    April 10, 2008

  • "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

  • "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