as in lumbering
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as in shuffling
to move heavily or clumsily
disconsolate and exhausted after losing the match, the wrestler shambled toward the locker room
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shambling
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
31 Mar. 2026
One rarely gains a sense of what people look like (beyond the son’s bulky physique and shambling movements, in which the mother ‘caught a flash of her brother’).
—
Dan Sheehan,
Literary Hub,
22 Jan. 2026
These movies—including the seven-hour-long Sátántangó, a centerpiece of which is a shambling dance in a barroom—often swap the meandering sentence for a single camera shot that lasts 10 minutes or more.
—
Walt Hunter,
The Atlantic,
9 Oct. 2025
Once the beyond-the-grave comeuppance arrives, this short is just standard shambling ghouls and raining blood.
—
A.a. Dowd,
Vulture,
3 Oct. 2025
The shambling Cliff and the spiky Didi make for an odd couple.
—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
10 Apr. 2026
The Walking Dead keeps shambling along, now splintered into a bunch of pretty lackluster spinoffs.
—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
With almost no plan, Sonny makes a shambling attempt at an armed robbery, only to end up trapped in the bank with the manager and five female tellers as his hostages.
—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
31 Mar. 2026
One rarely gains a sense of what people look like (beyond the son’s bulky physique and shambling movements, in which the mother ‘caught a flash of her brother’).
—
Dan Sheehan,
Literary Hub,
22 Jan. 2026
These movies—including the seven-hour-long Sátántangó, a centerpiece of which is a shambling dance in a barroom—often swap the meandering sentence for a single camera shot that lasts 10 minutes or more.
—
Walt Hunter,
The Atlantic,
9 Oct. 2025
Once the beyond-the-grave comeuppance arrives, this short is just standard shambling ghouls and raining blood.
—
A.a. Dowd,
Vulture,
3 Oct. 2025
The shambling Cliff and the spiky Didi make for an odd couple.
—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
Julian’s shambling charm wears her down, the elder statesman challenging his younger peer’s view on their industry.
—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
10 Apr. 2026
The Walking Dead keeps shambling along, now splintered into a bunch of pretty lackluster spinoffs.
—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
6 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shambling
Adjective
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The Cubs players continued to taunt Ruth at every opportunity, and a big one came their way in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jurges slashed a sinking liner into right field and the lumbering, top-heavy Babe muffed a shoestring catch.
Verb
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In an era of digital overwhelm and social isolation, gathering around a table, shuffling tiles and building order out of chaos together feels like exactly what people are reaching for right now.
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The model of shuffling that the new result depends on, like Bayer and Diaconis’ before it, still assumes that the cards riffle down one by one, rather than in clumps.
Adjective
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Basic, an obscure album of oddball electronic rhythms and supremely wobbly guitar released in 1984 by Lou Reed collaborators Robert Quine and Fred Maher.
-
On March 4, the walls of a Travis County courtroom in Austin felt wobbly with grief.
Verb
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Gane finished off Pereira in the second round to win the title on Sunday after sending him stumbling with a right jab followed by a hammer fist.
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But stumbling into a town with a visual landscape that still shows Guedes' thumbprint was a delight.
Adjective
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The contrast with Durant’s lumpish Johnny makes no sense.
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Because both actors look like lumpish proletarian versions of Ingmar Bergman stars — Alma Pöysti, radiant yet benumbed, plays Ansa like a dish-towel Bibi Andersson, and Jussi Vatanen could be the schlump brother of Max von Sydow (with a dollop of Ryan Gosling).
Verb
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That feeling solidified during their solo date, which included stomping grapes, exploring a winery and making a promise to open a special bottle of wine together one year later.
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In the grainy video, an individual is seen appearing to throw a woman to the ground in the North Philadelphia alley and then hitting her repeatedly in the head with a brick, kicking her, and stomping her face, WPVI reported.
Adjective
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The pair come off less as cybercriminal masterminds than as galumphing galoots—that is to say, a pair of bumbling oafs who thought that asking AI how to cover their tracks was going to keep them out of federal prison.
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In the fall and early winter, there might be 20 creatures lounging there, occasionally galumphing or issuing a burp noise that echoes over the water.
Adjective
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McConnell has always appeared to have a somewhat unsteady gate — a childhood bout of polio left him with a partially paralyzed leg.
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Swalwell's absence on the campaign trail allowed Becerra to gain more traction as a seemingly steady Democratic option in a very unsteady race.
Cite this Entry
“Shambling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shambling. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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