skimble-skamble
Syllables: skim·ble-skam·ble/ˈskɪmb(ə)lˌskæmb(ə)l/
skimble-skamble adjective: confused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless.
Adjective
skimble-skamble (not comparable)
- Confused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless.
- [S]ometime he angers me / With telling me of the Mouldwarp and the Ant, / Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, / And of a Dragon and a finles fiſh, / A clipwingd Griffin and a molten rauen, / A couching Leon and a ramping Cat, / And ſuch a deale of skimble ſcamble ſtuffe / As puts me from my...c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]
- [Y]ou should hae made a' things plain and positive to Katherine. Such skimble-skamble, yea and nay kind o' ways willna do wi' women.1886, Amelia E. Barr, “The Beginning of Strife”, in The Bow of Orange Ribbon: A Romance of New York, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 62
- Synonyms:
- absurd, Laputan, cockamamie, cockeyed, farcical, foolish, full of it, irrational, inconsistent, incongruous
Noun
skimble-skamble (uncountable)
- Gibberish, mumbo-jumbo, nonsense.
- Did you read his skimble-skamble about * * being at the head of his own profession, in the eyes of those who followed it?1818 June 1, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, “Letter CCCXVII. To Mr Moore.”, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: […], volume II, Paris: Published by A[nthony] and W[illiam] Galignani, […], published...
- None of the questions directed at Chavalit [Yongchaiyudh] were serious enough to make him think before he delivered his beat-around-the-bush response. He put the nation in deep shame – again – with his unenlightened skimble-skamble.1997 September 4, Sopon Onkgara, “One man, one draft, lots of gibberish”, in The Nation, Bangkok: Nation Pub. Group, →OCLC, page A4, column 3
- Synonyms:
- absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil
Synonyms of skimble-skamble
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- jabberwocky
- laughable
- ludicrous
- nonsensical
- preposterous
- priceless
- rich
- ridiculous
- unreasonable
- absurdity
- all my eye
- all my eye and Betty Martin
- bafflegab
- balderdash
- balls
- baloney
- Bandini
- baragouin
- batcrap
- batshit
- bilgewater
- blah
- blah-blah
- blah-blah-blah
- blather
- blatherskite
- bobbins
- bollocks
- bosh
- BS
Forms of skimble-skamble
| alternative form | skimble-scamble |
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Origin of skimble-skamble
Reduplication of scamble (“to move about pushing and jostling, struggle for place or possession, scramble; to mangle”). The term was popularized by William Shakespeare’s use of it in the play Henry IV, Part 1 (c. 1597): see the quotation.
Questions about skimble-skamble
- What does skimble-skamble mean?
- Skimble-skamble means confused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless.
- What part of speech is skimble-skamble?
- Skimble-skamble can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce skimble-skamble?
- Skimble-skamble is pronounced /ˈskɪmb(ə)lˌskæmb(ə)l/ (UK).
Words near skimble-skamble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: skimble-skamble (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-skimble-skamble.wav.
Cite this entry: “skimble-skamble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skimble-skamble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.