I think I should confess something. That dreaded and most overused word, 'shambled', is a real word and I found out about it several weeks ago and didn't tell you.
You may want some background on the word 'shambled'. My old D&D DM (the guy who runs Dungeons and Dragons for the group playing) used this word over and over...and over...and over again, as if it were the only word he knew to describe menacing but slow (and/or fast) movement. Plus it's not a verb! He used it for zombies, and wolves, and ogres. If anyone 'shambles', it's zombies. I don't think anybody else does. The point is, 'shambled' is about the most annoying word this year, and it shouldn't be real. I thought it was a made up/misappropriated word.
Turns out I was wrong. I was listening to someone read Tolkien's The Hobbit at work the other week when, to my great shock and horror, Tolkien used the word 'shambled' AS A VERB! The conflict was then obvious. If Tolkien, a great fantasy writer of the 20th century, used shambled, then it must be a word. A real word. But it's not a word. It's hijacking "in shambles", as in a 'state of ruin/falling apart', and using it to describe shaky movement. However, Tolkien used it.
I have to concede now, because of Tolkien, that 'shambled' is a word. I am however, not planning on telling my D&D group that. Maybe they won't find out.
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