blackboard jungle

noun

A school with dangerous, unruly pupils.

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Meanings

nounblackboard jungle (plural blackboard jungles)

plural blackboard jungles

  1. A school with dangerous, unruly pupils.

    […] could subdue any renegade person or family, but I wonder if they would not meet their match in the blackboard jungles of today.

    2015, Martha Stephens, Me and the Grandmas of Baghdad, page 64
    1 more example

    […] blackboard jungles abounded in the media, the widening gap between suburban and urban school performance was frequently in the news.

    2011, William J. Reese, America's Public Schools, page 309
Cite this entry
APA

blackboard jungle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackboard%20jungle

MLA

“blackboard jungle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackboard%20jungle. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackboard jungle,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackboard%20jungle.

Source: blackboard jungle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.