clusterfuck

See also: cluster-fuck and cluster fuck

English

Alternative forms

• cluster fuck

Etymology

Reportedly coined in the 1960s by hippie poet Ed Sanders as Mongolian Cluster Fuck.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈklʌs.təˌfʌk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈklʌs.tɚˌfʌk/

Noun

clusterfuck ‎(plural clusterfucks)

1. (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 fuck. ".

   • 1989: P. J. O'Rourke, Holidays in Hell ^{p. 216}

     "Mongolian Cluster Fuck" 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 fuck. Yes. Good name. ... He was sitting here in the middle of a great big cluster fuck

   • 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-fuck. 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

Translations

a chaotic situation

• French: bordel (fr) m, merdier (fr)
• Polish: burdel (pl) m
• Russian: по́лная жо́па (ru) f ‎(pólnaja žópa), пизде́ц (ru) m ‎(pizdéc), барда́к (ru) m ‎(bardák)

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кластерфак m ‎(klasterfak)

  Roman: klasterfak m

• Sicilian: buirdiellu

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

• fustercluck

Verb

clusterfuck ‎(third-person singular simple present clusterfucks, present participle clusterfucking, simple past and past participle clusterfucked)

1. (vulgar) To fuck (something) up, to make a total mess of.

See also

• FUBAR
• rape
• fuck