FUMBLE

fumble, muff

(noun) (sports) dropping the ball

fumble

(verb) drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder; “fumble a grounder”

fumble

(verb) handle clumsily

grope, fumble

(verb) feel about uncertainly or blindly; “She groped for her glasses in the darkness of the bedroom”

fumble, blunder

(verb) make one’s way clumsily or blindly; “He fumbled towards the door”

botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up

(verb) make a mess of, destroy or ruin; “I botched the dinner and we had to eat out”; “the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology 1

Verb

fumble (third-person singular simple present fumbles, present participle fumbling, simple past and past participle fumbled)

(transitive, intransitive) To handle nervously or awkwardly.

(transitive, intransitive) To grope awkwardly in trying to find something

(intransitive) To blunder uncertainly.

To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.

(transitive, intransitive, sports) To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.

To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.

Synonyms

• (grope awkwardly): grubble, poke; see also feel around

Noun

fumble (plural fumbles)

(sports, American football, Canadian football) A ball etc. that has been dropped by accident.

Etymology 2

Noun

fumble (plural fumbles)

(British) A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.

Source: Wiktionary

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Fum"ble, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fumbled; p. pr. & vb. n. Fumbling.] Etym: [Akin to D. fommelen to crumple, fumble, Sw. fumla to fusuble, famla to grope, Dan. famle to grope, fumble, Icel. falme, AS. folm palm of the hand. See Feel, and cf. Fanble, Palm.]

1. To feel or grope about; to make awkward attempts to do or find something. Adams now began to fumble in his pockets. Fielding.

2. To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly; as, to fumble for an excuse. Dryden. My understanding flutters and my memory fumbles. Chesterfield. Alas! how he fumbles about the domains. Wordsworth.

3. To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over. I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers. Shak.

Fum"ble, v. t.

Definition: To handle or manage awkwardly; to crowd or tumble together. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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