shambles

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A scene of great disorder or ruin.

   Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you at least take the blame?

2. 2
   noun

   A great mess or clutter.

   This bedroom is a shambles.

3. 3
   noun

   A butcher's shop.

   Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

4. 4
   noun

   a building where animals are butchered

5. 5
   noun

   a condition of great disorder

6. 6
   noun

   A scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation.

7. 7
   noun

   A slaughterhouse.

8. 8
   verb

   third-person singular simple present indicative of shamble

Etymology

From Middle English schamels, plural of schamel, from Old English sċeamol, sċamul (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil (“stool, bench”), from Vulgar Latin scamellum, from Latin scamillum (“little bench, ridge”), from Latin scamnum (“bench, ridge, breadth of a field”).