shamble
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L327580 on Wikidata ↗verb
- to walk awkwardly with dragging feet
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈʃæmbəl/ / [ˈʃʰæmbəl] ~ [ˈʃʰæmbl̩] / /ˈʃeə̯mbəl/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English schambyll, shamyll, schamel, from Old English sċeamol, scamol (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil, from Proto-Germanic *skamulaz, *skamilaz, from Latin scamellum, a variant of scabellum (“footstool”). Cognate with Dutch schemel (“footstool, bench”), German Schemel (“stool”), Danish skammel (“stool”). Icelandic skemill (“footstool”).
- 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.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English schambyll, shamyll, schamel, from Old English sċeamol, scamol (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil, from Proto-Germanic *skamulaz, *skamilaz, from Latin scamellum, a variant of scabellum (“footstool”). Cognate with Dutch schemel (“footstool, bench”), German Schemel (“stool”), Danish skammel (“stool”). Icelandic skemill (“footstool”).
- To walk while shuffling or dragging the feet.
“I wasn't too impressed with the fellow, when he shambled in unenthusiastically and an hour late.”
“The old black, not in any very high glee at having been previously roused from his warm hammock at a most unseasonable hour, came shambling along from his galley, for, like many old blacks, there was something the matter with his knee-pans, which he did not keep well scoured like his other pans; [...]”