clusterfuck

Definition

A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong, often caused by communication failure, a complex environment, or incompetence.

Etymology

From cluster + fuck. Reportedly coined by Hippie poet Ed Sanders as Mongolian Cluster Fuck. First use appears c. 1965 in East Village Other.

Example Sentences

• "[Colonel Meyers:] That's for sure. What's your assessment of this exercise? [Highway:] It's a cluster fuck."
• "1989: P. J. O'Rourke, Holidays in Hell "Mongolian Cluster Fuck" is the technical term journalists use for a preplanned, wholly scripted, news-free event."
• "They had a name for something like this in the army—a cluster fuck. Yes. Good name. ... He was sitting here in the middle of a great big cluster fuck"