SHAMBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shamble mean? 

• SHAMBLE (noun)
  The noun SHAMBLE has 1 sense:

1. walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet

  Familiarity information: SHAMBLE used as a noun is very rare.

• SHAMBLE (verb)
  The verb SHAMBLE has 1 sense:

1. walk by dragging one's feet

  Familiarity information: SHAMBLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHAMBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

shamble; shambling; shuffle; shuffling

Context example:

from his shambling I assumed he was very old

Hypernyms ("shamble" is a kind of...):

walk; walking (the act of traveling by foot)

Derivation:

shamble (walk by dragging one's feet)

• SHAMBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they shamble    ... he / she / it shambles   
Past simple: shambled   
Past participle: shambled   
-ing form: shambling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk by dragging one's feet

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

scuffle; shamble; shuffle

Context example:

We heard his feet shuffling down the hall

Hypernyms (to "shamble" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shamble"):

drag; scuff (walk without lifting the feet)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

shamble; shambling (walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet)

 Context examples 

The great head drooped more and more under its tree of horns, and the shambling trot grew weak and weaker.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His eyes were blinded so that he could not see, and the blood running from ears and nose and mouth turned the cabin into a shambles.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When it cleared again the place was a shambles.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The shambling figure, and the scanty great-coat, were not to be mistaken.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The road is all spotted like a shambles at Martinmas.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My friend had no choice but to hire another contractor to finish the project, for she couldn’t leave her house in shambles.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

A few of the boldest and wisest forsook the fires of the gods, which had now become a shambles, and fled into the forest, where, in the end, they starved to death or were eaten by wolves.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

If the man who had but one little ewe lamb that was dear to him as a daughter, that ate of his bread and drank of his cup, and lay in his bosom, had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles, he would not have rued his bloody blunder more than I now rue mine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He ran once, but the long gown clogged him so that he slowed down into a shambling walk, and finally plumped into the heather once more.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An instant afterwards there appeared a little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and a shambling style of walking.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)