fiasco
fiasco¹
Definition
fias·co (fē as′kō)
noun pl. -·coes or -·cos
a complete failure; esp., an ambitious project that ends as a ridiculous failure
Etymology: Fr < It (far) fiasco, to fail < fiasco, bottle (< Gmc *flasko, flask)
fiasco²
Definition
fias·co (fē äs′kō)
noun pl. -·coes or -·chi-kē
a bottle; esp., a long-necked wine bottle with a rounded lower portion covered in woven straw
fiasco
Synonyms
fiasco
Usage Examples
Possessives
- year: Mr Todd: Number 1 - To stop a repeat of last year's fiasco; no more animals are allowed on site.
Converse of object
- avoid: Her husband, knowing she could not play, shut the piano to avoid a fiasco.
- follow: Centrale Stop, in Tamworth Road opened on 10th December 2005 following a major fiasco over the finances.
- become: The West Coast Mainline has become the biggest fiasco in the short history of rail privatization.
- see: I was one of the crowd who saw this famous fiasco.
- have: But sadly he had a major plumbing fiasco, where pipes cracked and flooded his house.
- remember: UCAG remembers other well-known fiascos such as, for example, the M25 motorway, which was over capacity before it officially opened.
Adjective modifier
- foreign: The Mail reports that the civil servants responsible for the Home Office foreign prisoners fiasco will keep their jobs ( Times, p.4 ).
- whole: Finally we took the message into the closing session of the whole fiasco.
- recent: The recent fiasco around weapons of mass destruction springs to mind.
- complete: This whole Transco thing seems to be a complete fiasco.
- total: However Carmen was not the total fiasco some writers have inferred.
- late: Conservatives have laid the blame for the latest tax credits fiasco firmly at the door of Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Noun used with modifier
- A-level: How to do good and have fun Young people caught in this summer's A-level fiasco may decide to take a last-minute gap year.
- immigration: Check back next week for part II of the whole immigration fiasco.
- prisoner: Although the prisoner fiasco may have ended those hopes, he would be seen as a credible candidate for Deputy Prime Minister.
- exam: Witness the exams fiasco last year where at least Estelle Morris had the courage to stand aside.
- election: The Middlesex election fiasco led to further problems for the ministry.
- pension: Here we have another in the long line of government pensions fiascos.
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