fiasco

plural fiascos · plural fiascoes · plural fiaschi · hypercorrect plural fiasci

1. A sudden or unexpected failure.

   His speech was a fiasco that left the audience confused.

   2 more examples

   The event turned into a complete fiasco when the power went out.

   "Well, doctor," said Mr. Curtis, heartily, "I am glad for your sake that the financial part of the enterprise has succeeded so well, because, the more I think over the scheme, the more I am convinced that it will prove a complete fiasco in practice. And that reminds me that there is one question which I wish to ask you."

   1898, Clement Fezandié, Through the Earth

2. A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.

   1 more example

   There was the fiasco about Olga coming to the tableaux, which was the cause of her sending that very tart reply, via Miss Lyall, to Lady Ambermere's impertinence, and the very next morning, Lady Ambermere, coming again into Riseholme, perhaps for that very purpose, had behaved to Lucia as Lucia had behaved to the moon, and cut her. That was irritating, but the counter-irritant to it had been that Lady Ambermere had then gone to Olga's, and been told that she was not at home, though she was very audibly practising in her music-room at the time.

   1920, Edward Frederic Benson, Queen Lucia

   Synonyms: debacle

3. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.

   1 more example

   I sent for the porter and when he came I told him in Italian to get me a bottle of Cinzano at the wine shop, a fiasco of chianti and the evening papers. He went away and brought them wrapped in newspaper, unwrapped them and, when I asked him to, drew the corks and put the wine and vermouth under the bed.

   1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC