When the job market is in a shambles, people have trouble finding work. When a supermarket in a shambles, there might be melons and milk spilled all over the floor. If everyone in a classroom is talking and yelling at once, the class is a shambles, because no one can hear each other or get any work done. People say things are "in shambles" or "a shambles" — they mean the same thing. However you say it, a shambles is chaotic, disorderly, out of hand, and off the hook — a major, five-alarm mess.
What a shambles!!!
This expression is used very often when you want to complain or express your opinion about bad servise you were offered in the restaurant or in a shop / market / office.
The Shambles is also the name of a very old, narrow and picturesque street in York. Apparently the original meaning of shambles was 'meat of fruit market' .
ReplyDeleteWikipedia
Yes, it has plenty of meanings:
DeleteA. scene or condition of complete disorder or ruin
B. Great clutter or jumble; a total mess
C. A place or scene of bloodshed or carnage
D. A slaughterhouse
E. A meat market or butcher shop