debacle

1. (figurative) An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.Examples: "The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator."; "The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle."; "The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the Prudhoe Bay oil spill] thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea."Synonyms: fiascofiguratively

2. (geology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.Examples: "[…] so that in extreme cases the latter may even be dammed up for a time, and a debacle be the consequence, when the main river overcomes the resistance opposed to it, […]"; "For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]"; "When this débâcle commences […], the masses of ice, drifting with the current and unable to pass, are hurled upon those already soldered together; thus an enormous barrier is formed […]"