# clusterfuck
## English
### Alternative forms

* cluster fuck

### Etymology

From cluster +‎ fuck. Reportedly coined by Hippie poet Ed Sanders as Mongolian Cluster Fuck. First use appears c. 1965 in East Village Other.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈklʌs.təˌfʌk/
* (US) IPA: /ˈklʌs.tɚˌfʌk/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Noun

clusterfuck (plural clusterfucks)
* (slang, vulgar) A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong, often caused by communication failure, a complex environment, or incompetence.
** 1986, Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge, IMDB tt0091187:[Colonel Meyers:] That's for sure. What's your assessment of this exercise? [Highway:] It's a cluster fuck.
** 1989: P. J. O'Rourke, Holidays in Hell $^{p.216}$
    "Mongolian Cluster Fuck" is the technical term journalists use for a preplanned, wholly scripted, news-free event.
** 1990, Stephen King, Dark Half‎, →ISBN, page 151:They had a name for something like this in the army—a cluster fuck. Yes. Good name. ... He was sitting here in the middle of a great big cluster fuck
** 1994, James O'Barr, Alex Proyas, The Crow:A simple sweep-and-clear turned into a total clusterfuck: T-Bird, trying to explain to Eric how the situation escalated on Devil's Night […]
** 1995, John Barnes, Mother of Storms:Please note also my request that henceforth I wish to be reminded of the possibility of a clusterfuck in any contingency plan or operations proposal […]
** 2004, Ray Kopp, Thunder in the Night: A Sailor's Perspective on Vietnam, →ISBN, page 87:My cousin was in the Army over here in '68. He says don't trust anybody to know what they're doing, calls it a cluster-fuck. Fucked-up-beyond-all-repair, FUBAR he says.
** 2004, Jon Stewart, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction:[…] and you will still only begin to get a sense of the constitutionally mandated clusterfuck that is the modern presidency.
** 2005, Charles W. Sasser, Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II:It was a clusterfuck, a deadly clusterfuck. When the doughs finally got off the ground in some numbers and charged into the woods, the Krauts broke contact […]
** 2008, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Burn After Reading, IMDB tt0887883
    [CIA-Superior:] Okay. Okay. If he wakes up we'll worry about it then. Jesus, what a clusterfuck.
** 2013: Barbara Kruger: What a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers. I make my work about this kind of sadly foolish farce. I’m waiting for all of them to sue me for copyright infringement in response to the Supreme v Married To The Mob battle

#### Synonyms

* car crash (chiefly UK)
* CF
* Charlie Foxtrot
* cluster
* clusterball
* comedy of errors
* debacle
* dumpster fire
* dysfunction
* fiasco
* FUBAR
* goatfuck
* goat rope
* gong show
* imbroglio
* omnishambles
* quagmire
* SNAFU
* train wreck (chiefly US)

#### Derived terms

* clusterbumble
* clusterbùrach
* clusterfuckery
* fustercluck

#### Translations
### Verb

clusterfuck (third-person singular simple present clusterfucks, present participle clusterfucking, simple past and past participle clusterfucked)
* (vulgar) To fuck (something) up, to make a total mess of.

#### Translations
### See also

* FUBAR
* rape
* fuck

### Anagrams

* fustercluck