fumble
Plural: fumbles
Noun
- (sports) dropping the ball
- A ball etc. that has been dropped by accident.
- A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.
Verb
Verb Forms: fumbled, fumbling, fumbles
- To handle clumsily or to make a mistake.
- feel about uncertainly or blindly
- make one's way clumsily or blindly
- "He fumbled towards the door"
- handle clumsily
- make a mess of, destroy or ruin
- drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder
- "fumble a grounder"
- To handle nervously or awkwardly.
- To grope awkwardly in trying to find something
- To blunder uncertainly.
- To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.
- To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.
- To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
- Of a man, to sexually underperform.
Examples
- He fumbled for his keys.
- He fumbled his way to the light-switch.
- He fumbled the key into the lock.
- He fumbled through his prepared speech.
- He would often fumble with his tiles, accidentally knocking them off the rack.
- to fumble for an excuse
- Waiting for the interview, he fumbled with his tie.
Origin / Etymology
Late Middle English, from Low German fummeln, fommeln, fammeln (German fummeln), or Dutch fommelen.
Or, perhaps from a Scandinavian/North Germanic source; compare related Old Norse fálma, Icelandic fálma, Danish fumle, especially Swedish fumla, famla, with variants: fumbla (“fumble”), fambla (“famble”), related to Swedish fim, fem (Danish fim, Norwegian fim, feima), with a root meaning of “cover, coating of foam or figuratively ditto”, cognate to German Feim (“surf”) and English foam. Possibly has (a more or less unconscious) connection to fathom (via Old Norse faðmr, Swedish famn) in the sense of “embrace”.
The ultimate origin for either could perhaps be imitative of fumbling. Or, from Proto-Indo-European *pal- (“to shake, swing”), see also Latin palpo (“I pat, touch softly”), and possibly Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan (“to feel”).
Synonyms
ball up, blow, blunder, bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, botch, botch up, bumble, bungle, flub, fluff, foul up, fuck up, grope, louse up, mess up, mishandle, muck up, muff, screw up, spoil, feel around, grubble, poke
Scrabble Score: 13
fumble: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfumble: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fumble: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary