verb
- Make a mess of, destroy or ruin.
- usage: "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement"
- Walk unsteadily.
- usage: "The drunk man stumbled about"
- Speak haltingly.
- usage: "The speaker faltered when he saw his opponent enter the room"
adjective
- Lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands."a bumbling mechanic"; "a bungling performance"; "ham-handed governmental interference"; "could scarcely empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor creature- Mary H. Vorse
- synonyms: bungling, butterfingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, left-handed
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). bumbling. Retrieved September 21, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/bumbling/definitions/1169968 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "bumbling" http://smartdefine.org/bumbling/definitions/1169968 (accessed September 21, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, bumbling, Smart Define, viewed 21 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/bumbling/definitions/1169968>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "bumbling" 23 October 2010. Web. 21 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/bumbling/definitions/1169968> |