Definition of a cluster fuck

noun

• a mess, a really bad situation.

  What a clusterfuck!

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Karen from Seattle, WA, USA on Jun 29 1998.

• a disturbance causing confusion; "ruckus"; "commotion".

  The kid dropped the dishes and caused one big clusterfuck.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Matt P. from Paden City, WV, USA on Dec 03 1998.

• something messy, messed-up or disorganized.

  After the party, my whole house is a clusterfuck.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Betsy M. from Columbia, MO, USA on Nov 04 1999.

• an ill-organized, clutter of equipment and people, all of which create a commotion.

  This job site is a complete clusterfuck.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Mark T. from Beebe, AR, USA on Feb 24 2000.

• an orgy.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Mark T. from Beebe, AR, USA on Feb 24 2000.

• an unorganized mess, which will be difficult to organize again. Some examples of "cluster fucks": a car pileup, a messy room, an unorganized meeting.
  • See more words with the same meaning: a mess.

  Last edited on Nov 29 2001. Submitted by Kevin H. from Cedar Rapids, IA, USA on Nov 29 2001.

• Everything is going wrong. Full of confusion or uncertainty.

  This whole situation is just a big clusterfuck.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Adam S. from Mesquite, TX, USA on Dec 11 2001.

• (n): When circumstances become so outrageously fucked-up (see fucked-up) that they cannot be repaired, fixed, ignored or blamed on someone else.

  This engineering project has turned into a total cluster-fuck.

  Last edited on Jun 04 2013. Submitted by Jeff M. from Austin, TX, USA on Jan 09 2002.

• Used to describe a situation when multiple aspects of one project goes wrong.

  The whole surgical procedure was one big clusterfuck.

  Obamacare is one of the largest clusterfucks ever in the US.

  Last edited on Nov 12 2013. Submitted by Josh V. from Wynantskill, NY, USA on Aug 22 2002.

• medicare and medicaid are prime examples of clusterfuck

  Medicare and medicaid are examples of clusterfucks to the corporatist mindset of total greed absent any shred of empathy.

  Last edited on Dec 11 2014. Submitted by Anonymous on Jul 24 2014.

• An organized operation or activity that goes terribly wrong as a result of middle-management incompetence.
  
  Coined by American and Allied soldiers during the Viet Nam Conflict. Majors and Lt Colonels in the Army and Air Force are the equivillent of middle management. Often, the aquisition of supplies and orders for troop movements were originated by these officers. The insignia for each of these ranks is a small round Oak Leaf Cluster (Majors have a gold cluster, Lt Colonels have a silver custer). When an operation went wrong, it was often blamed on incompitent middle management giving stupid or contradictory orders. Hence, cluster fuck.

  Last edited on Aug 06 2014. Submitted by Anonymous on Aug 06 2014.

• It compares someone or some situation to the effects of a clusterbomb, much used in the Vietnam Nam war -- repeated explosions, repeated fuckups.

  Medical and hospital care as it exists today with it becoming a business rather than a profession and controlled by administrators, government, insurance companies, PA's, nurse practitioners, absent physicians, hospitalists, and left big toe specialists.

  The doctor's office was really a clusterfuck!

  Last edited on Aug 29 2015. Submitted by bwilkes58 on Nov 10 2014.