shamble

Syllables: sham·ble/ˈʃæmbəl//ˈʃeə̯mbəl/

shamble noun: 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.

Noun

shamble (plural shambles)

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.

Adjective

shamble (not comparable)

(rare) Shambling, awkward, ungainly; distorted, ill-shapen, wry.
- His awkward stagger is due to his shamble legs.

Verb

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

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.
- 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...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
Synonyms:

shuffle, stagger

shamble meaning in Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic

shamble in Malayalam

drag one's feet, shuffle, lumber: ആടിക്കുഴഞ്ഞു നടക്കുക, ആടിയുലഞ്ഞു നടക്കുക, കാൽവലിച്ചുവലിച്ചു നടക്കുക, വേച്ചുവേച്ചു നടക്കുക, വലിച്ചിഴച്ചു നടക്കുക, വിലക്ഷണമായി വലിഞ്ഞിഴഞ്ഞു നടക്കുക

shamble in Kannada

ಕುಂಟುಗಾಲು ನಡಗೆ, ಸೆಳೆಗಾಲು ನಡಗೆ, ವಕ್ರವಾಗಿ ನಡೆ, ಕಾಲೆಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು ನಡೆ, ಕುಂಟುಗಾಲಿಕ್ಕು, ಸೆಳೆಗಾಲಿಕ್ಕು

shamble in Arabic

to walk while shuffling or dragging the feet: مَشَى يَجُرُّ قَدَمَيْهِ mašā yajurru qadamayhi

Synonyms of shamble

Forms of shamble

Noun
plural	shambles
Verb
third-person singular present	shambles
present participle	shambling
past participle	shambled
past	shambled

Origin of shamble

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 West Frisian skammel (“shamble, trestle, stool", also (in the plural) "legs, especially when showing defects or deformities”), Dutch schemel (“footstool, bench”), German Schemel (“stool”), Danish skammel (“stool”). Icelandic skemill (“footstool”). The verb is probably derived from the adjective, itself from attributive use of the noun. Compare West Frisian skammelje (“to walk with a swaying gait, especially on deformed legs”).

Words formed from shamble

Words that rhyme with shamble

Questions about shamble

What does shamble mean?: Shamble means 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.
What is shamble in Malayalam?: Shamble in Malayalam is ആടിക്കുഴഞ്ഞു നടക്കുക, ആടിയുലഞ്ഞു നടക്കുക, കാൽവലിച്ചുവലിച്ചു നടക്കുക. See Shamble meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is shamble?: Shamble can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce shamble?: Shamble is pronounced /ˈʃæmbəl/.
What is the plural of shamble?: The plural of shamble is shambles.

Words near shamble in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: shamble (page history and authors); shamble (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); shamble (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shamble.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shamble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shamble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.