shemozzle

plural shemozzles · alternative chemozzle · alternative chermozzle · alternative chimozzle · alternative schemozzle · alternative schimozzle · alternative schlemozzle · alternative schmozzle · alternative shamozzle · alternative shimozzel · alternative shimozzle · alternative shlemozel · alternative shlemozzle

1. slangA state of chaos or confusion.

   "No end of a shemozzle there’s been there lately," he said. "Marina Gregg's been having hysterics most days. Said some coffee she was given was poisoned."

   1962, Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

   1 more example

   I always found it helpful that we retained one elderly member of staff who could offer a different perspective. “Well,” he would begin, “the last time we had one of these shemozzles…”. The mere fact that he could remember past disasters – and had lived to tell the tale – was reassuring.

   2017 June 23, Charles Moore, “This country has come through many a crisis, but this one is a true shemozzle”, in The Telegraph

2. slangA quarrel or rumpus.

   If Will comes out of this shemozzle.

   1901, James Maclaren Cobban, The Golden Tooth

   2 more examples

   […] but tarned long and then a nation louder, while engaged in swallowing from a large ampullar, that his pawdry's purgatory was more than nigger bloke could bear, hemiparalysed by the tong warfare and all the shemozzle, (Daily Maily, fullup Lace! Holy Maly, Mothelup Joss!) his cheeks and trousers changing colour every time a gat croaked.

   1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

   When does a melee actually become a melee? And what differentiates a melee from a shemozzle and a free-for-all? Or indeed minor physical interference? Hardly the most pressing of national matters, but probably the most interesting question going before Congress later this month.

   2018 February 8, Ian O'Riordan, “GAA Congress to separate a melee and a shemozzle”, in The Irish Times

   Synonyms: ruckus

present singular third person shemozzles · participle present shemozzling · participle past shemozzled · past shemozzled · alternative chemozzle · alternative chermozzle · alternative chimozzle · alternative schemozzle · alternative schimozzle · alternative schlemozzle · alternative schmozzle · alternative shamozzle · alternative shimozzel · alternative shimozzle · alternative shlemozel · alternative shlemozzle

1. slangTo scarper; to run away; to flee.

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:shemozzle.

   Synonyms: flee