- shamble (v.)
- "to walk with a shuffling gait," 1680s, from an adjective meaning "ungainly, awkward" (c.1600), from shamble (n.) "table, bench" (see shambles) perhaps on the notion of the splayed legs of bench, or the way a worker sits astride it. Cf. French bancal "bow-legged, wobbly" (of furniture), prop. "bench-legged," from banc "bench." Related: Shambled; shambling.