Debacle

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".

• Date: 1802

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.