English

Alternative forms

• skimble-scamble

Adjective

skimble-skamble ‎(not comparable)

1. Confused, disorderly, chaotic, senseless.
   • 1886, Amelia E. Barr, The Bow of Orange Ribbon, ch. 5:

     "[Y]ou should hae made a' things plain and positive to Katherine. Such skimble-skamble, yea and nay kind o' ways willna do wi' women."

   • 1984, David Denby, "Movies: Mozartomania," New York Magazine, 24 Sept., page 93 (retrieved 11 May 2011):

     Some of this exuberant, large-scale movie is charming and inventive, and some of it is pitifully trashy, in the style of Ken Russell's skimble-skamble burlesques of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Liszt.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:absurd

Noun

skimble-skamble ‎(uncountable)

1. Nonsense, gibberish, mumbo-jumbo.
   • 1830, Lord Byron, Letters and journals of Lord Byron: with notices of his life: Volume 2, "Letter CCCXVII" (1818), A & W Galignani (Paris), page 287:

     Did you read his skimble-skamble about * * being at the head of his own profession, in the eyes of those who followed it?

   • 1997, Sopon Onkgara, "One Man, One Draft, Lots Of Gibberish," The Nation (Thailand), 4 Sept., page A4 (retrieved 11 May 2011):

     He put the nation in deep shame—again—with his unenlightened skimble-skamble.

Synonyms

• skimble-skamble stuff
• See Wikisaurus:nonsense