debacle

Meaning

1. (figuratively) An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
2. A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.

Synonyms

fiasco

slaughter

calamity

stampede

drubbing

thrashing

failure

trouncing

walloping

whipping

catastrophe

havoc

collapse

destruction

disaster

breakdown

defreeze

massive failure

unfreezing

crack

break

flame-out

crash

damage

defrost

demolition

devastation

downfall

flop

meltdown

rout

ruin

ruination

slump

thaw

train wreck

turkey

Translations

débâcle

Debakel

desastre

fiasco

fiasco

debacle

verplettering

desastre

Katastrophe

fiasco

πανωλεθρία

debacle

νίλα

κατατρόπωση

Pronounced as (IPA)

/deɪˈbɑː.kəl/

Etymology

Cognate with Old French: desbacler

Cognate with Occitan: baclar

In summary

From French débâcle, from débâcler (“to unbar; unleash”) from prefix dé- (“un-”) + bâcler (“to dash, bind, bar, block”) [perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”)], from Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-.
Also attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”) and in Occitan baclar (“to close”).
The hypothesised derivation from Middle Dutch *bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), a frequentative of bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) no longer seems likely due to the lack of attestation of *bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having the limited meaning of "freeze superficially" in Dutch.