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Definition
an event or enterprise that ends disastrously — especially because of poor planning or preparation- Poor policy decisions have turned a minor event into an American debacle.
- After the debacle in Russia I left the country,Richard Connell -- The Most Dangerous Game
- The policy resulted in an unprecidented environmental debacle.
- That mission certainly has not gone as the Bush administration planned, and it is roughly midway between a disappointment and a debacle.Ted Galen Carpenter -- Free Speech for Generals -- http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6371&print=Y (retrieved 06/28/06)
- The result was a debacle.Brink Lindsey -- War & the Battle of Ideas -- http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4570&print=Y (retrieved 06/28/06)
- There had been a few massive manhunts before, but none like the one that would surely follow this debacle.Ted Dekker -- White: The Great Pursuit
- I see her sitting on the stump petting Karenin's head and ruminating on mankind's debacles.Milan Kundera -- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- Or given me any assignment after my debacle with Luzan, much less one with a man like John Kwang, with whom I might so easily identify?Chang-rae Lee -- Native Speaker
- Well, she'd have to bear it meekly, much as she disliked it, if she expected to snatch victory from this debacle.Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
- She sold few and attributed the debacle to America's fading love of poetry.Erik Larson -- The Devil in the White City
- He imagined Trina out there somewhere, being held by the bonfire people, probably even crazier with another day gone and the debacle of the forest fire.James Dashner -- The Kill Order
- If a bit of reputation was all I had to show for this debacle, I'd have to do my best to build on it.Patrick Rothfuss -- The Name of the Wind
- It was a general debacle.William Makepeace Thackeray -- Vanity Fair
- I was just quietly hopeful that, after the racing debacle, Will was still prepared to leave the annex.Jojo Moyes -- Me Before You
- "I'm sorry you didn't make out with Leslie, kid," Nathan said to me one night after the debacle on Pierrepont Street.William Styron -- Sophie's Choice
- After the xylophone debacle in band, Lorenzo was adrift.Joshua Davis -- Spare Parts
- When the survivors of the McKinley debacle showed up on the south side of Everest in 1996, Makalu Gau was again their leader.Jon Krakauer -- Into Thin Air
- He loved to needle him about the Hungary debacle.Dave Eggers -- A Hologram for the King
- Four days after the Jolly Seventeen debacle Vida Sherwin called and casually blew Carol's world to pieces.Sinclair Lewis -- Main Street
- Miss Marlee wasn't to blame for this whole debacle.Kiera Cass -- The Heir
debacle = an event or enterprise that ends disastrously
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