From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishshamblesham‧ble /ˈʃæmbəl/ verb [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] WALKto walk slowly and awkwardly, not lifting your feet much, for example because you are tired, weak, or lazy SYN shuffleshamble over/past/along etc The old man shambled out of the room muttering to himself.shambling gait (=a shambling way of walking)→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
shamble• An old tramp shambled along, looking for money or cigarette ends on the floor.• But he stooped and appeared to shamble as he walked, chunky and untidy in his tweed suit.• But the animal was bad-tempered, and one night Eugene opened the cage and let him shamble away.• Yorick shambled backwards out of the room.• When they shambled in, Saconi looked them up and down and snorted.• The man shambled off into the house, and the rest of us picked our way across the front garden.• Looking tired and fat, Parker shambled onto the stage and started playing.• Cornelius shambled over and sat down noisily.shamble over/past/along etc• Cornelius shambled over and sat down noisily.• He climbed from the bed and shambled over to the dressing-table mirror.• I wake them up and we shamble along towards the Customs.Origin shamble (1500-1600) shamble (of legs) “curved, badly formed” ((16-19 centuries)), probably from shamble “table from which meat is sold” ( → SHAMBLES); probably because of the similarity to table legs 