# debacle
## English
### Alternative forms

* débâcle
* debâcle (rare)
* débacle (rare)

### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /deɪˈbɑː.kəl/, /dɛˈbɑː.kəl/
* (US) IPA: /dɪˈbɑ.kəl/, /dəˈbɑ.kəl/, /deɪˈbɑ.kəl/
* Audio (US):(file), Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑːkəl
* Hyphenation: de‧ba‧cle

### Noun

debacle (plural debacles)
* An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences. [from early 19th c.]
** 1952, Boaz Cohen, Epistle to Yemen, translation of original by Maimonides, page 5:The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.
** 1996, Richard L. Canby, “SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine”, in Schultz et al, editor, Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War‎, page 188:The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.
** 2007, “Statement by Peter Van Tuyn”, in BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, page 46:The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the Prudhoe Bay oil spill] thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.
* (ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
** 1836, Henry De La Beche, How to Observe: Geology‎, page 69:[…] so that in extreme cases the latter may even be dammed up for a time, and a debacle be the consequence, when the main river overcomes the resistance opposed to it, […]
** 1837, John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology‎, page 51:For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]
** 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution‎, page 425:When this débâcle commences […] , the masses of ice, drifting with the current and unable to pass, are hurled upon those already soldered together; thus an enormous barrier is formed […]

#### Usage notes

* The older spelling with accents is no longer listed at all or only mentioned as an alternative in the online versions of most major British and American dictionaries.

#### Synonyms

* (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously): fiasco

#### References

* 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised), Oxford University Press, →ISBN
* 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 211
* 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
* 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
* 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English, Oxford University Press, →ISBN

### Anagrams

* belaced

## Dutch
### Alternative forms

* debâcle (before 1996)

### Etymology

Borrowing of French débâcle.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /deːˈbaː.kəl/, /dəˈbaː.kəl/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: de‧ba‧cle
* Rhymes: -aːkəl

### Noun

debacle m or f or n (plural debacles, diminutive debacletje n)
* debacle

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from French débâcle, or from English.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /deˈbakle/ [d̪eˈβ̞a.kle]
* Rhymes: -akle
* Syllabification: de‧ba‧cle

### Noun

debacle f (plural debacles)
* debacle

### Further reading

* “debacle”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Noun

debacle n
* a debacle

#### See also

* fiasko
* flopp
* misslyckande

### References

* debacle in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* debacle in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)