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Noun: debacle  dee'baa-kul or di'baa-kul or dey'baa-kul
  1. A disastrous or embarrassing failure
    - fiasco, débâcle
     
  2. Flooding caused by a tumultuous breakup of ice in a river during the spring or summer
    - débâcle
     
  3. A sound defeat
    - thrashing, walloping, drubbing, slaughter, trouncing, whipping, hammering [informal], pasting [informal], débâcle, smackdown [N. Amer, informal], beatdown [N. Amer]

Derived forms: debacles, débâcles

Type of: alluvion, collapse, defeat, deluge, flood, inundation, licking

Encyclopedia: Debacle