as in shuffling
to move heavily or clumsily
disconsolate and exhausted after losing the match, the wrestler shambled toward the locker room
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in lumbering
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Recent Examples of shambling
Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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
Verb
-
The three actors were filming a lighthearted scene, shuffling excitedly between a hot sauna and cold plunge, when Reeves’ foot caught on some flooring.—
Seth Abramovitch,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2025
-
The film essentially takes place entirely within an under-20-minute timeline, showing the same events from a shuffling deck of points of view.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
2 Sep. 2025
Verb
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His arrival home each night is announced by his sputtering motorcycle and his drunken stumbling up the stairs.—
Adam Solomons,
IndieWire,
4 Sep. 2025
-
Whew The last thing a team wants to see is its starting quarterback stumbling to the sideline four plays into the season.—
Kirk Kenney,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Some aren’t convinced that attempting to climb the ranks on set will pay off at a time when competition is so cutthroat and the future of the business is so wobbly.—
Katie Kilkenny,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
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The finances also are wobbly here as all the money left behind by the Dowager Countess has been squandered.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Cena’s chrome-domed antihero, Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante and and Danielle Brooks’ Adebayo stomping through spots of light.—
Matt Webb Mitovich,
TVLine,
21 Aug. 2025
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No velvet rope, no fourth wall—just boot-stomping, beer-sign neon and crowd-absorption tech.—
Bob Bonniol,
Rolling Stone,
13 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The contrast with Durant’s lumpish Johnny makes no sense.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Oct. 2024
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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).—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
23 May 2023
Adjective
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Bator cites both external factors (such as geopolitical conflicts or the unsteady global economy) and internal ones (such as burnout and uncertainty).—
Mark C. Perna,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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On the game’s fourth play, the Michigan transfer got up after a 3-yard rush on a keeper and wobbled off the field on unsteady legs.—
Kirk Kenney,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shambling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shambling. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.
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