fum·ble

(fŭm′bəl)

v. fum·bled, fum·bling, fum·bles

v.intr.

1. To touch or handle nervously or idly: fumble with a necktie.

2. To grope awkwardly to find or to accomplish something: fumble for a key.

3. To proceed awkwardly and uncertainly; blunder: fumble through a speech.

a. Football To drop a ball that is in play.

b. Baseball To mishandle a ground ball.

v.tr.

1. To touch or handle clumsily or idly: "fumbled the skeleton key into the lock and turned it" (Bentley Dadmun).

2. To make a mess of; bungle. See Synonyms at botch.

3. To feel or make (one's way) awkwardly.

a. Football To drop (a ball) while in play.

b. Baseball To mishandle (a ground ball).

1. The act or an instance of fumbling.

2. Sports A ball that has been fumbled.

[Middle English fomelen, to grope.]

fum′bler n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

fumbling - showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman"; "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf"

bungling, incompetent, clumsy

unskilled - not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency; "unskilled in the art of rhetoric"; "an enthusiastic but unskillful mountain climber"; "unskilled labor"; "workers in unskilled occupations are finding fewer and fewer job opportunities"; "unskilled workmanship"

Translations

goffo

fumbling

adj, fumblingly

adv → ungeschickt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007