If you describe something as a shambles, it is a disorganized mess. The original meaning of ‘shamble’, however, was a bench. Years ago, butchers would set up their benches down the side of a street in order to sell their meat – in fact, many roads in England where this practice used to take place still retain the name of ‘Shambles Road’. The problem was that the butchers used to throw their offal and rotten meat in the street, which, as you can imagine, resulted in an awful mess. Hence the meaning of the word today!
Noun: Shambles
Adjective: Shambolic
Adverb: Shambolically
"The way these files are arranged is the biggest shambles I've ever seen!"
"The economy is in a shambles."
"George made dinner and left the kitchen a shambles."
Can you give us some more example sentences?
