shemozzle
UK/ʃɪˈmɒzəl/US/ʃəˈmɑzəl/
shemozzle noun: a state of chaos or confusion.
Noun
shemozzle (plural shemozzles)
- A state of chaos or confusion.
- "No end of a shemozzle there’s been there lately," he said. "Marina Gregg's been having hysterics most days. Said some coffee she was given was poisoned."1962, Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
- I always found it helpful that we retained one elderly member of staff who could offer a different perspective. “Well,” he would begin, “the last time we had one of these shemozzles…”. The mere fact that he could remember past disasters – and had lived to tell the tale – was reassuring.2017 June 23, Charles Moore, “This country has come through many a crisis, but this one is a true shemozzle”, in The Telegraph
- A quarrel or rumpus.
- If Will comes out of this shemozzle.1901, James Maclaren Cobban, The Golden Tooth
- […] but tarned long and then a nation louder, while engaged in swallowing from a large ampullar, that his pawdry's purgatory was more than nigger bloke could bear, hemiparalysed by the tong warfare and all the shemozzle, (Daily Maily, fullup Lace! Holy Maly, Mothelup Joss!) his cheeks and trousers...1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
- Synonyms:
- ruckus
Verb
shemozzle (third-person singular simple present shemozzles, present participle shemozzling, simple past and past participle shemozzled)
Synonyms of shemozzle
Forms of shemozzle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shemozzles |
| alternative form | chemozzle |
| alternative form | chermozzle |
| alternative form | chimozzle |
| alternative form | schemozzle |
| alternative form | schimozzle |
| alternative form | schlemozzle |
| alternative form | schmozzle |
| alternative form | shamozzle |
| alternative form | shimozzel |
| alternative form | shimozzle |
| alternative form | shlemozel |
| alternative form | shlemozzle |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shemozzles |
| present participle | shemozzling |
| past participle | shemozzled |
| past | shemozzled |
Origin of shemozzle
UK late-19th century. Borrowed from Yiddish שלימזל (shlimazl, “misfortune”), from Middle High German slim (“crooked”) and Hebrew מַזָּל (mazzāl, “luck”). Cognate with US English schlimazel (“unlucky person”). Compare German Schlamassel.
Words that rhyme with shemozzle
Questions about shemozzle
- What does shemozzle mean?
- Shemozzle means a state of chaos or confusion.
- What part of speech is shemozzle?
- Shemozzle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shemozzle?
- Shemozzle is pronounced /ʃɪˈmɒzəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shemozzle?
- The plural of shemozzle is shemozzles.
Words near shemozzle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shemozzle (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-shemozzle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shemozzle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shemozzle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.