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debacle.

An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/deɪˈbɑː.kəl/UK/dɛˈbɑː.kəl/UK/dɪˈbɑ.kəl/US/dəˈbɑ.kəl/US
  1. An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.

    figuratively
  2. A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.

Where this word comes from

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-. Also attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”) and in Occitan baclar (“to close”). The hypothesised derivation from Middle Dutch *bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), a frequentative of bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) no longer seems likely due to the lack of attestation of *bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having the limited meaning of "freeze superficially" in Dutch.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.