Debacle

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Etymology

French débâcle, from débâcler to clear, from Middle French desbacler, from des- de- + bacler to block, perhaps from Vulgar Latin bacculare, from Latin baculum staff; Middle Dutch bakkelen "to freeze artificially, lock in place" from bakken "to stick, stick hard, glue together".

Definitions

  • 1 : a tumultuous breakup of ice in a river
  • 2 : a violent disruption (as of an army) : rout
  • 3 a : a great disaster
b : a complete failure : fiasco
  • 4. An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.