Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A chaotic or confused situation.
- adjective In a state of confusion or chaos.
- transitive verb To make confused or chaotic.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- initialism Alternative spelling of
SNAFU .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective snarled or stalled in complete confusion
- verb cause to be in a state of complete confusion
- noun an acronym often used by soldiers in World War II: situation normal all fucked up
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I think the online idea snafu is a big slap in the face for IPL.
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The mailings did go to the correct homes and won't be resent despite the name snafu, said Graig Lubsen, the BMV's deputy communications director.
Agency gets first names wrong for 58,600 Indiana drivers 2011
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I think the online idea snafu is a big slap in the face for IPL.
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This latest snafu is the result of a little-noticed change to the gift-card rules of the Credit CARD Act of 2009.
Fed allows continued sale of mislabeled holiday gift cards 2010
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A technical snafu is keeping Elizabeth Bear's new book off the shelves?
SF Tidbits for 7/22/08 Matt 2008
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A technical snafu is keeping Elizabeth Bear's new book off the shelves?
July 2008 2008
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That said, the Burress/Toomer snafu is embarrassing. — cph
Misidentified Black People in Iowa - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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No, the best way to avoid the running-out-of-players snafu is to go back to the game's roots and take a page out of the youth baseball rule book, where a starting player can be reinserted into his original spot in the batting order after he's been taken out.
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But after a major label snafu and family commitments subsided, they managed to get together 10 new songs, with a handful leftover that will make B-Sides or the beginnings of the next Autolux album.
Spinner 2010
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− Dense dialogue makes the story and characters difficult to get into, and the caption / subtitle snafu is embarrassing.
Anime News Network 2009
stpeter commented on the word snafu
Situation Normal, All F***ed Up. Beyond snafu is fubar. :-)
December 10, 2006
konoka commented on the word snafu
I hate this word so much.
April 5, 2007
tbtabby commented on the word snafu
Also the name of an Intellivision game.
March 2, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word snafu
Also the name of a bar in New York City.
March 25, 2009
reesetee commented on the word snafu
Ben & Jerry's flavor, actually named "S.N.A.F.U." (with periods)--it stood for "Strawberries Naturally All Fudged Up." A retired flavor. :-)
August 27, 2009
alexz commented on the word snafu
@CarlosG From 1942 to 45, there was a cartoon reel which had a character named 'Private Snafu'.
http://tiahblog.blogspot.ca/2011_03_01_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Snafu
The first episode had
Situation
Normal
All
... pause...
Fouled
Up
animated in the title. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fK5SdmJn0
May 12, 2013