Fumble
['fʌmb(ə)l] or ['fʌmbl]
Definition
(noun.) (sports) dropping the ball.
(verb.) drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder; 'fumble a grounder'.
(verb.) handle clumsily.
(verb.) make one's way clumsily or blindly; 'He fumbled towards the door'.
Checked by Dora--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) To feel or grope about; to make awkward attempts to do or find something.
(v. i.) To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly; as, to fumble for an excuse.
(v. i.) To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
(v. t.) To handle or manage awkwardly; to crowd or tumble together.
Editor: Nat
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Feel about (awkwardly or childishly), make awkward attempts.
Editor: Maureen
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See BUNGLE]
Checker: Peggy
Definition
v.i. to grope about awkwardly: to handle awkwardly: to stammer in speech: to find by groping.—v.t. to manage awkwardly.—n. Fum′bler.—adv. Fum′blingly.
Edited by Christine
Examples
- Don't fumble with it. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Rosedale continued to fumble awkwardly with the tea-pot, and she felt sure that he had heard what had been said of her. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- She fumbled, and took one. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The friendly little old man shook it heartily, and after a little shower of caution, he took his umbrella, and fumbled his way out of the room. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- I got at my spectacles, with some fumbling and difficulty, feeling the Sergeant's dismal eyes fixed on me all the time. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I cannot find any knocker, my lord,' said the footman, at our carriage-door, after fumbling about for some time. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- I shall say I didn't know you, for you look so grown-up and unlike yourself, I'm quite afraid of you, he said, fumbling at his glove button. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- After much impressive fumbling of keys and opening of locks, the stained and aged document was spread before us. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Well, well, said the honest old man, fumbling in his pocket: I s'pose, perhaps, I an't following my judgment,--hang it, I _won't_ follow my judgment! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Checker: Mortimer