How to Use shambolic in a Sentence

shambolic

adjective
  • As the film that Ryan shot makes clear, the results were shambolic.
    Kevin Dettmar, The New Yorker, 16 June 2020
  • All three played in the shambolic teenage noise-folk crew Moses Campbell, one of the better bands to emerge from the peak Smell era of the late-aughts.
    August Brown, latimes.com, 7 Mar. 2018
  • But as in Ukraine, the initial advance by the invaders was a shambolic mess.
    John Fund, National Review, 6 Mar. 2022
  • At one point, Norman meets his own double, in the shambolic person of Hank Azaria.
    A. O. Scott, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2017
  • But chaos isn’t out of place in the shambolic business career of a real estate heir who weaves in and out of peril.
    Max Abelson, Fortune, 3 July 2021
  • The record's filthiest cut even put the F-word in its title, living up to the name with a shambolic rave-up that both blew the roof off and shook the earth below the new decade.
    Joe Lynch, Billboard, 13 Jan. 2021
  • Wolff, too, tells a broad, jumpy, event-laden story about Trump’s shambolic final year.
    New York Times, 15 July 2021
  • But the way the cuts were handled was shambolic, suggesting a larger failure to plan for the future.
    Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 11 Mar. 2021
  • Perhaps as a consequence, the season is more shambolic than the first.
    Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022
  • Central among her visions is a shambolic dwarf with flippers and a bent sense of humor known as the Thalidomide Kid.
    Dwight Garner, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Central among her visions is the Thalidomide Kid, a shambolic dwarf with flippers and a bent sense of humor.
    Dwight Garner, New York Times, 13 June 2023
  • But Tigertail is also a lot of things The Farewell isn't: drowsy, shambolic, underthought.
    Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Apr. 2020
  • As the shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan has shown, we may be done with the wars on terrorism, but they are likely not done with us.
    John Hillen, National Review, 10 Sep. 2021
  • The networks were on the hot seat because their election-night coverage had contributed to the chaos of that shambolic evening.
    Jim Rutenberg, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2017
  • Blair is a band of Brooklyn zoomers steeped in ’90s DIY indie and frayed emo who make melodic, shambolic rock songs that crest and fall apart in the most beautiful way.
    Vogue, 7 Dec. 2021
  • That is the shambolic wonder of the Olympic Games, reinforcing our good, while ensuring the bad is never out of sight.
    Amy Bass, CNN, 20 Feb. 2022
  • Its shambolic handling of the AstraZeneca vaccine has seen the country reverse course twice.
    Yasmeen Serhan, The Atlantic, 18 Mar. 2021
  • The fifth and final episode of season 4, part 1, flashed forward to Kate and Joe's first encounter after the shambolic country getaway.
    Dory Jackson, Peoplemag, 10 Feb. 2023
  • This was once again made clear in the shambolic primary election that Georgia held on Tuesday.
    Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, 11 June 2020
  • The leader of all this non-action is the middle-aged Agent Garrick, a shambolic, avuncular presence with a paunch and a nervous cough.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2021
  • Soon, our characters are off to Australia, on a shambolic road trip, hunting gods and gurus.
    Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker, 5 June 2017
  • Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case was shambolic.
    Rex Huppke, chicagotribune.com, 17 Aug. 2020
  • The Ligue 1 side are looking to bounce back from an utterly shambolic season, and a move for Icardi would certainly help their cause.
    SI.com, 21 Aug. 2019
  • Its largely acoustic songs are sweet and all too brief, and affect a shambolic attitude that bolsters the earnestness at their hearts.
    Leor Galil, Chicago Reader, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Weak 5 is a Thursday night home game against the shambolic Giants, who could be starting rookie Daniel Jones at quarterback.
    BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2019
  • The latter, of course, likely lost an election on the back of his shambolic pandemic performance.
    Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2021
  • The shambolic implementation of the GST is likely to make matters worse.
    The Economist, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Motsepe has been entrusted with lifting the sports body from its current shambolic state of affairs.
    Daniel Ekonde, Quartz, 23 Mar. 2021
  • But concerns remain that the overall shambolic state of U.S. public health data infrastructure could hobble the response to any future threats.
    Sam Whitehead, CNN, 24 Apr. 2023
  • During the tour, journalists and diplomats were taken through a large warehouse, with airport workers looking nonplussed as the group walked between shambolic piles of boxes and floor-to-ceiling shelving units.
    Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shambolic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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