Definitions
a sudden and violent collapse
Word origin
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-.
Used in a sentence
“The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.”
“The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.”
“The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the Prudhoe Bay oil spill] thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Complete fiasco”7 letters
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