What's the difference between scuffle and shamble?

Scuffle


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To strive or struggle with a close grapple; to wrestle in a rough fashion.
  • (v. i.) Hence, to strive or contend tumultuously; to struggle confusedly or at haphazard.
  • (n.) A rough, haphazard struggle, or trial of strength; a disorderly wrestling at close quarters.
  • (n.) Hence, a confused contest; a tumultuous struggle for superiority; a fight.
  • (n.) A child's pinafore or bib.
  • (n.) A garden hoe.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The protesters were confronted by a much larger group of pro-Kremlin activists, which led to scuffles.
  • (2) When the owners of Manchester City finally managed to persuade Pep Guardiola to oversee the next stage of their masterplan it is fair to say they probably did not expect to be approaching Christmas scuffling with a team of Watford’s limitations for their first league win at home in almost three months.
  • (3) The trials of those arrested over the scuffles on 6 May 2012 have become known as the Bolotnaya affair, after the square in which the clashes took place.
  • (4) Heather Titley said she saw Cameron grab the collar of Noye's shirt and scuffle with him at the Swanley interchange of the M25.
  • (5) One BNP supporter who was injured in a scuffle said: "I've put my best suit on today and come out for a peaceful demonstration and this is what's happened.
  • (6) Passengers scuffled with a man suspected of leaving the bag before the blast went off but failed to detain him.
  • (7) A minor scuffle erupts and four white shirts immediately converge on the referee and after a minor argument both players are booked.
  • (8) Minor scuffles were reported, but the ranks of riot police mostly looked on as largely peaceful and white-collar crowd - variously estimated at 10,000 to 70,000 - assembled without a permit in People's Square.
  • (9) Mostly, I thought about being at Barack Obama’s inauguration ; not at the ceremony itself, but the back of the crowd approximately three miles away, in frigid DC weather and surrounded by thousands of other scuffling, freezing, depressed-looking people, trying to squeeze a sense of occasion from what felt like being at the back of a demo.
  • (10) "Mubarak is the solution," chanted the crowd, some of whom also briefly scuffled with the supporters of people killed during the 2011 uprising.
  • (11) Scuffles break out and four protesters are arrested, bundled off to the station in the same tuk-tuks they arrived in.
  • (12) Surveillance video taken from a Ukrainian airport shows Klymenko and the country's chief prosecutor scuffling with guards who try to detain them and overturning a metal detector gate as they try to reach their plane.
  • (13) Chad's Hissène Habré removed from Senegal court as scuffle breaks out Read more Habré had refused legal representation, saying he did not recognise the court’s jurisdiction, and vowed not to cooperate with the trial.
  • (14) More pressure from LA, a scuffle behind the net and Dominic Williams cross-checks King and he will go to the box.
  • (15) Fifteen people were arrested a day after the results when scuffles broke out between police and protesters outside Downing Street.
  • (16) The voice of the survivors is being ignored, the concerns of the people and many clergy in Chile are being ignored, and the safety of children in this diocese is being left in the hands of a bishop about whom there are grave concerns for his commitment to child protection.” Barros was installed as bishop of the southern Chilean diocese of Osorno last weekend amid unprecedented opposition, and scuffles inside the cathedral by protesters who say he is unfit to lead.
  • (17) According to the weekly magazine Friday, the scuffle took place in the early hours of 16 January, when the wrestler should have been preparing for his bout later the same day.
  • (18) eKathimerini.com reports that "a few dozen pensioners" demanded a meeting with health minister Andreas Lykourentzos, and briefly scuffled with police.
  • (19) There were scuffles in Cambridge as crowds attempted to storm the university's Senate House.
  • (20) Over the past few years, the two teams have developed a bit of a dislike for each other stemming from a preseason game that was called early after a tackle by former KC midfielder Roger Espinoza led to a scuffle between the two teams.

Shamble


Definition:

  • (n.) One of a succession of niches or platforms, one above another, to hold ore which is thrown successively from platform to platform, and thus raised to a higher level.
  • (n.) A place where butcher's meat is sold.
  • (n.) A place for slaughtering animals for meat.
  • (v. i.) To walk awkwardly and unsteadily, as if the knees were weak; to shuffle along.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Staff had to make paper records of 999 calls in what one ambulance crew member described as “a shambles”.
  • (2) David Winnick, the MP for Walsall North, said: "None of [May's] excuses can explain away the sheer incompetence and shambles that have occurred on her watch."
  • (3) The leader of the RMT rail union, Bob Crow, said: "The whole sorry and expensive shambles of rail privatisation has been dragged into the spotlight this morning and instead of re-running this expensive circus, the west coast route should be renationalised on a permanent basis."
  • (4) It would be a travesty if their first experience of democracy was this shambles.
  • (5) Dan Barron blames this result on the maroon jerseys, while Greg Phillips nominates the theme to Ronnie Corbett vehicle Sorry as the perfect Hazlehurst soundtrack for this shambles.
  • (6) Ball's camp, meanwhile, denied that he was seeking a right of veto over the non-executive chairman, describing the process as "a shambles" in which the former BSkyB executive was presented with a fait accompli rather than being properly consulted about who he should work with.
  • (7) In his piece, Gove criticises historians and TV programmes that denigrate patriotism and courage by depicting the war as a "misbegotten shambles".
  • (8) The government’s overhaul of primary-school assessments has turned into a shambles, according to the teachers who will have to carry them out from next month, with complaints that seven- and 11-year-old pupils find the new standards too hard and too confusing.
  • (9) As Longford (Channel 4), he seemed to be playing not just the shambling man but his shining soul.
  • (10) Philip Hammond needs to get a grip and sort this shambles out."
  • (11) He can build on material we have collected but reaching a fair outline in three months seems impossible – but I don’t think that is his objective anyway.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christopher Pyne says Labor has left the Coalition with a shambles and a $1.2bn shortfall.
  • (12) One publisher, unwilling to speak on the record, agreed, saying that "the consensus does seem to be that the Booker this year is a bit of a shambles", with the panel "lacking in authority" and "a bit confused about what the prize is for".
  • (13) Lloyd George, Gladstone, Churchill - he reluctantly resigned at 80 in 1955 after a four-year rearguard action – Thatcher of course, Macmillan too, were shambles.
  • (14) Photograph: Fabio De Paola Roxanne McMurray, spokesperson for the advocacy group SOS Women’s Services, told Background Briefing that following last year’s reforms, services across the state were in a shambles.
  • (15) It was on the 37th lap of the 61-lap race that a man was seen shambling along the side of the track on the straight near turn 13.
  • (16) Related story Dome management was 'shambles' Related special report The Millennium Dome Useful links The full National Audit Office report Executive summary of the report
  • (17) Dromey called the law "a shambles", benefiting neither candidates nor electors.
  • (18) My local authority is a shambles, so the sooner control is taken away from local government and administered nationally, the better, but I do worry about how they are going to work it all out.
  • (19) "Partly because I want to see Will Hughes in the top flight by getting there rather than waving from a Manchester subs bench, partly because they're far less of an expensive shambles than QPR, partly because Redknapps annoy me but mainly so it's really easy for me to watch Everton once a year."
  • (20) Ministers seem to be working hard to make their new police and crime commissioner elections a shambles – providing too little information, costly elections in cold dark November, the helpline not working , ballot papers reprinted .