NPR

A Phrase For Our Time: Merriam-Webster Adds 'Dumpster Fire' To Dictionary

Editor Peter Sokolowski predicts the phrase is here to stay. "It's been used so broadly in the last two to three years ... that people in the future will have to know what it meant."
A dumpster fire.

What qualifies as a dumpster fire depends on who's watching, but you tend know it when you see it.

But if forced to define it for someone not prone to hashtagging, you might quote Merriam-Webster:

(noun, US informal): "an utterly calamitous or

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