Dictionary

shitstorm en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From shit + storm.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, slang, vulgar) A chaotic and unpleasant or violent situation.
   • "You and your cowboys just stirred up a shitstorm, agent." 1999, Joseph Finder, High Crimes:
   • 'Sometimes the pool-pah,' Bokonon tells us, 'exceeds the power of humans to comment.' Bokonon translates pool-pah at one point in The Books of Bokonon as 'shit storm' and at another point as 'wrath of God'. 1963, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 110, in Cat's Cradle:
   • In Baltimore, the general rule is that if something looks like a shitstorm, smells like a shitstorm and tastes like a shitstorm, it goes to homicide. 2006, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets:
   • The hell with Brown […] He's been missing all the shit storms. It's his turn. 1948, Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead:
   • “...seem’s he’s been tumbling ass over teakettle—though there’s no way to tell in this murky shitstorm, no visual references...” 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow, Part I:
2. (idiomatic, vulgar) Considerable backlash from the public.
   • When Abbott stated openly that his plan involved a new tax of 1.7% on large companies with big profit margins - those, in fact, most able to pay - he provoked a near universal shitstorm. 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 32
   • Near-synonyms: blowback, fallout

Forms

Coordinates

omnishambles · fiasco · hot mess · perfect storm · debacle · clusterfuck · shit show

Descendants

Shitstorm · gównoburza

Relateds

shit-stirrer · cook up a storm

Synonyms

fallout · blowback

Translations (17)

de Shitstorm (Considerable backlash.) · fr panade (violent situation.) · pl meksyk (violent situation.) · ru срач (Considerable backlash.) · af herrie (Considerable backlash.) · he שיט סטורם (violent situation.) · fr merdier (violent situation.) · fi paskamyrsky (violent situation.) · fr tollé (Considerable backlash.) · fi paskamyrsky (Considerable backlash.) · pl burdel (violent situation.) · da shitstorm (Considerable backlash.) · pl gównoburza (Considerable backlash.) · ru срач (violent situation.) · pl chryja (Considerable backlash.) · pl sajgon (violent situation.) · fr bordel (violent situation.)