Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also clutterfuck) an orgy, irrespective of sexual preference; occas. attrib.

1968		N. von Hoffman We are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against 200: Oh, those big clusterfucks! I can’t stand them.
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 69: Cluster Fuck. Two men copulating simultaneously with the same woman, one entering the vagina, the other the anus. This is also known as a sandwich [...] A Mongolian cluster fuck [...] is an orgy with a cast of thousands.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 250: Once again it was cluster-fuck-suck-snake-pit action.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language 8: Clusterfuck—group gay sex.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 115: Hate and smut — a coon named Bayard Rustin — a queer cluster-fuck.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 62/2: clutter fuck n. an orgy.

2. (also cluster, clusterfudge, jumblefuck) chaos.

1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 394: Geez, this operation sure’s turned into a giant clusterfuck, huh?
1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 244: How can you make a difference the way the Army is running this cluster-fuck?
1991		D. Simon Homicide (1993) 243: Red balls have the potential to become David O. Selznick production, four-star departmental clusterfucks.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 295: Everybody’ll want a piece, Frankie. We’re talking clusterfuck.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 222: We’ve been developing contingency plans for just this sort of a clusterfuck.
2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 10: Patty was in quite the jumble fuck. He made his way slowly to the pool.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 65: The lights went out in the middle of the operation [...] it was a major cluster.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 229: Something about another clusterfuck in Iraq.
2011		Guardian Mag. 30 Apr. 5/3: We were both so shocked at out ineptitude that we were literally rendered dumb [...] It was a clusterfuck of the highest order.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 255: You already got the whole cluster-fuck in the street figured out? All by yourself?
2016		Guardian 29 June 🌐 Having been one of the prime generators of the biggest clusterfuck in British political history, Boris [etc].
2016		in Guardian 30 June 🌐 Johnson emerging as a relatively principled politician in this clusterfudge. He didn't mean brexit to happen so he won't see it through.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles : Shakespeare will have no chance of surviving the coming clusterfuck.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 135: They were talking about what a clusterfuck the day had turned into.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The Last Ride’ in Broken 299: ‘HHS is embarrassed enough already by this clusterfuck’.
2022		S. Murphy Twitter 28 Sept. 🌐 What to say about this Tory clusterfuck? It’s the dismal result of wildly inadequate egotists abusing power and turning their un-mandated, evil and moronic ideology into govt policy.

3. a group of indecisive people, unable to decide what to do next.

1974		oral testimony in HDAS I.
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 354: ‘That’d be Delta Company, Sir’ Calahan answered. ‘Oh fuck [...] Not that clusterfuck.’.
2002		Big Ben Kennedy.com Journal 24 Jul. 🌐 ‘Can I not cuss for 3 hours?’ I should be able to, but just in case let me get it out of my system now... Shit, Fuck, Bitch, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, [...] Cluster Fuck.

4. a sharp person.

1987

(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 254: Arledge, he’s the cat with the glasses – he’s a clusterfuck. Went and got into a poker game [...] Took ’em for a hundred and fifty each.