Dictionary

shit show en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ʃɪt ʃoʊ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From shit + show. First use in print appears circa 1976. See cite below.

Meanings

1. (slang, vulgar) A situation characterized by chaos, confusion, and incompetence.
   • The government's enforcement crackdown derailed, morphing from a firm hand into a shit show.
   • Things can't possibly be so bad at work that you'd volunteer for another trip to this shit show. 2008, Thomas Holland, KIA: A Dr. Kel McKelvey Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 12:
   • […] it was feared that the defendant would not be fit to attend the trial during the whole day. On 22 June 1973 the applicant again refused to attend the trial. She had therefore to be taken handcuffed to the courtroom. There she insulted the presiding judge saying: "There is that swine again. We don't want this shit-show any longer …" She was then excluded from the trial during the taking of evidence. 1976, Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, page 410:
   • Near-synonyms: shitstorm, clown show (degrees of tragedy or dark comedy vary across instances); clusterfuck, debacle, fiasco, hot mess, omnishambles, perfect storm
   • I was too busy helping Laura clean up for this shit show. 1999, Jamie Harrison, An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence: a Blue Deer mystery, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 330:
2. (slang, vulgar) A messy situation, especially involving drunkenness and partying.
   • The primary cause of the customer directed apathy was the servers' preoccupations with getting drunk and creating a script for the nightly shit show. 2003, Aironius French, The Adventures of Waiterman, Lord of the Restaurant Jungle, Trafford Publishing, vol. 1, no. 1, →ISBN, page 186:
   • We won't be going to those parties anymore if they're not going to be anything better than a shit show full of shitfaced debauchery.

Forms

Descendants

shitshow

Relateds

shit sandwich

Synonyms

clusterfuck · clown show · omnishambles · crapshow · shitstorm · fiasco · perfect storm · debacle · hot mess