Definition (noun) 1. a: an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstanding b: a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it : scandal c: a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation : embroilment d: an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel)   2. A confused mass   In Context "He was close to scandal—GOP chairman during the Watergate years, vice president during the Iran-Contra imbroglio—yet was not tainted by it." David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe, 1 Dec. 2018