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shamble

[sham-buhl] / ˈʃæm bəl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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In my review, I praised the conviction of Gunn’s soupy sci-fi spectacle, writing: “Whatever this sweet, surreal sci-fi shamble is that Gunn has created, everyone here seems to believe ardently in it.”

From Seattle Times Jul. 30, 2023

Drawing from Korean folktale and Chung’s expertise as a Slavic literature professor, the narratives here shamble and ooze across a porous divide between highbrow absurdism and lowbrow jump scare.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 9, 2022

Even as its various subplots shamble on, the novel keeps reminding us about the rising conflation of reality and fiction.

From Washington Post Sep. 3, 2019

That's sad in some respects but, in another sense, allows the shows’ creators to bring the series to a worthy end as opposed to forcing it to shamble onward long past relevance.

From Salon Mar. 23, 2019

A big station clock rattles off a relentless advance of seconds, and Marie-Laure sits beside her great-uncle and listens to the wasted and wretched shamble off the trains.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

His Bedouin ancestors earned great wealth pearl diving—until foreign farmed pearls tanked the market and left the local economy in shambles.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 19, 2026

Videos show horrifying, but now predictable, images of entire blocks flattened and basic infrastructure in shambles.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 25, 2026

"As a still developing country we have limited containment capacity... Our public health sector is in shambles," said a nurse in Nairobi, who asked for anonymity.

From Barron's Jun. 5, 2026

Businesses said it had been a "shambles" with trade already dropping dramatically and lorries getting stuck and having to reverse back out of town.

From BBC Jun. 3, 2026

The room where the meeting had taken place was a shambles.

From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi

A dozen dolphins leaped and spun alongside the boat as Capt. Sean Rubino — known to everyone as Bobby Hill for the cartoon character he resembles — shambled down to chum the water.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 26, 2022

Figure skating shambled along behind her, bracing for more turmoil.

From Washington Post Feb. 15, 2022

Exhausted junior doctors shambled in after shifts with their sleeves pushed up.

From The Guardian Mar. 5, 2020

Meanwhile, as Kyoto shambled on, the horizon receded.

From The New Yorker Aug. 24, 2015

Mord shambled backward, grinning through his rotten teeth.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

She seemed to be everything that I, a shambling, spit up-stained wreck, was not.

From Salon Aug. 19, 2024

The post, from someone claiming to work at Boeing, described the production of Boeing's 737 planes as "a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen".

From BBC Jan. 24, 2024

This was the shambling, full system malfunction of a body and brain that could no longer outrun its own basic need for rest.

From Salon Sep. 3, 2023

As Hagen, the production’s linchpin, the bass Mika Kares, a newcomer to the cast, was most memorable: aggressive and doleful, stony and agonized, shambling around the set like the overgrown child he is.

From New York Times Aug. 1, 2023

James' chubby face was set and unsmiling as Major continued his imitation, scratching his nose, pouting his lips, and shambling loosely like a puppet at the end of jerking strings.

From "The Contender" by Robert Lipsyte




Vocabulary lists containing shamble


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