debacle
Syllables: de·ba·cleUK/deɪˈbɑː.kəl//dɪˈbɑ.kəl/
debacle noun: an event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
Noun
debacle (plural debacles)
- An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
- The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.1952, Boaz Cohen, Epistle to Yemen, translation of original by Maimonides, page 5
- The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.1996, Richard L. Canby, “SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine”, in Schultz et al, editor, Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War, page 188
- Synonyms:
- fiasco
- A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
- […] so that in extreme cases the latter may even be dammed up for a time, and a debacle be the consequence, when the main river overcomes the resistance opposed to it, […]1836, Henry De La Beche, How to Observe: Geology, page 69
- For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]1837, John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology, page 51
debacle meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
debacle in Tamil
- தகர்வு, படுவீழ்ச்சி, படுதோல்வி
debacle in Bengali
- সম্পূর্ণ ব্যর্থতা, বিপর্যয়
debacle in Malayalam
- failure, fiasco, catastrophe
- പതനം, പെട്ടെന്നുള്ള പതനം, വലിയതോൽവി, വൻപരാജയം, തോൽവി, തോല്മ
debacle in Kannada
- ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸೋಲು, ದೊಡ್ಡ ನೆರೆ, ಹಿಮಗಡ್ಡೆಯ ಬಿರಿತ, ರಭಸ ಪ್ರವಾಹ, ನೂಕುನುಗ್ಗಲು, ದೊಂಬಿ
More languagesFewer languages
- debacle in Arabic
- فَشَل ذَرِيْع fašal ḏariyʕ, كارِثة kāriṯa
Examples of debacle in a sentence
- Even sleazy tactics and his radioactive mouth may not be able to contain this debacle.
- She took the blame, in the public's eyes, although the debacle was more her husband's fault than her own.
- That was a debacle. We'll start afresh.
Synonyms of debacle
Forms of debacle
| plural | debacles |
|---|---|
| alternative form | débâcle |
| alternative form | debâcle |
| alternative form | débacle |
Origin of debacle
From French débâcle, from débâcler (“to unbar; unleash”) from prefix dé- (“un-”) + bâcler (“to dash, bind, bar, block”) [perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”)], from Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-. Also attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”) and in Occitan baclar (“to close”). The hypothesised derivation from Middle Dutch *bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), a frequentative of bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) no longer seems likely due to the lack of attestation of *bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having the limited meaning of "freeze superficially" in Dutch.
Words that rhyme with debacle
Questions about debacle
- What does debacle mean?
- Debacle means an event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
- What is debacle in Tamil?
- Debacle in Tamil is தகர்வு, படுவீழ்ச்சி, படுதோல்வி. See Debacle meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is debacle?
- Debacle is a noun.
- How do you pronounce debacle?
- Debacle is pronounced /deɪˈbɑː.kəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of debacle?
- The plural of debacle is debacles.
Words near debacle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: debacle (page history and authors); debacle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debacle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debacle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); debacle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-debacle.ogg, en-au-debacle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “debacle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debacle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.