shamble

English

Etymology

From Middle English schambyll, shamyll, schamel, from Old English sċeamol, scamol (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil, from Proto-Germanic *skamulaz, *skamilaz, from Latin scamellum, a variant of scabellum (“footstool”). Cognate with Dutch schemel (“footstool, bench”), German Schemel (“stool”), Danish skammel (“stool”). Icelandic skemill (“footstool”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmbl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

shamble (third-person singular simple present shambles, present participle shambling, simple past and past participle shambled)

1. To walk while shuffling or dragging the feet.

   I wasn't too impressed with the fellow, when he shambled in unenthusiastically and an hour late.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 64, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 328:

     The old black, not in any very high glee at having been previously roused from his warm hammock at a most unseasonable hour, came shambling along from his galley, for, like many old blacks, there was something the matter with his knee-pans, which he did not keep well scoured like his other pans; [...]

Synonyms

• shuffle

Translations

to walk while shuffling or dragging the feet

• Arabic: مَشَى يَجُرُّ قَدَمَيْهِ (mašā yajurru qadamayhi)
• Bulgarian: влача се (vlača se), тътря си краката (tǎtrja si krakata)
• Czech: courat se impf, šourat se impf
• Dutch: sloffen (nl)
• Finnish: laahustaa (fi), raahustaa
• German: schlurfen (de), schleichen (de), watscheln (de)
• Maori: hōnekeneke, pīkari
• Russian: ша́ркать (ru) (šárkatʹ)
• Spanish: arrastrar los pies
• Ukrainian: волочитися (voločytysja), тягтися (tjahtysja), незграбно йти (nezhrabno jty)
• ǃXóõ: ʘxúũ

Noun

shamble (plural shambles)

1. (mining) One of a succession of niches or platforms, one above another, to hold ore which is thrown successively from platform to platform, and thus raised to a higher level.

See also

• shambles

Anagrams

• hambles