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Definition 2024
clusterfuck
clusterfuck
See also: cluster-**** and cluster ****
English
Alternative forms
Noun
clusterfuck (plural clusterfucks)
- (slang, vulgar) A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong. It is often caused by incompetence, communication failure, or a complex environment.
- 1986, Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge, IMDB tt0091187, tt0091187
- When asked how he thought the military exercise went, Highway responded, "It's a cluster ****. ".
- 1989: P. J. O'Rourke, Holidays in **** p. 216
- "Mongolian Cluster ****" is the technical term journalists use for a preplanned, wholly scripted, news-free event.
- 1990, Stephen King, Dark Half, ISBN 0451167317, p. 151
- They had a name for something like this in the army—a cluster ****. Yes. Good name. ... He was sitting here in the middle of a great big cluster ****
- 1994: James O'Barr / Alex Proyas, The Crow
- A simple sweep-and-clear turned into a total clusterfuck: T-Bird, trying to explain to Eric how the situation escalated on Devil's Night [...]
- 1995: John Barnes, Mother of Storms
- Please note also my request that henceforth I wish to be reminded of the possibility of a clusterfuck in any contingency plan or operations proposal [...]
- 2004, Ray Kopp, Thunder in the Night: A Sailor's Perspective on Vietnam, ISBN 189245128X, p. 87
- My cousin was in the Army over here in '68. He says don't trust anybody to know what they're doing, calls it a cluster-****. Fucked-up-beyond- all-repair, FUBAR he says.
- 2004: Jon Stewart, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction
- [...] and you will still only begin to get a sense of the constitutionally mandated clusterfuck that is the modern presidency.
- 2005: Charles W. Sasser, Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II
- It was a clusterfuck, a deadly clusterfuck. When the doughs finally got off the ground in some numbers and charged into the woods, the Krauts broke contact [...]
- 2008, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Burn After Reading, IMDB tt0887883, tt0887883
- In the last sequence the CIA-Superior summarized the highly complex events/mess: "Jesus, what a clusterfuck. ".
- 2013: Barbara Kruger: What a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers. I make my work about this kind of sadly foolish farce. I’m waiting for all of them to sue me for copyright infringement in response to the Supreme v Married To The Mob battle
- 1986, Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge, IMDB tt0091187, tt0091187
Translations
a chaotic situation
Synonyms
- car crash (chiefly UK)
- CF
- Charlie Foxtrot
- cluster foxtrot
- comedy of errors
- debacle
- dysfunction
- fiasco
- FUBAR
- goat rope
- imbroglio
- omnishambles
- quagmire
- SNAFU
- trainwreck (chiefly US)
Derived terms
Verb
clusterfuck (third-person singular simple present clusterfucks, present participle clusterfucking, simple past and past participle clusterfucked)
- (vulgar) To **** (something) up, to make a total mess of.