Definition of Fumble

1. Noun. (sports) dropping the ball.

Exact synonyms: Muff
Generic synonyms: Bloomer, Blooper, Blunder, Boner, Boo-boo, Botch, Bungle, Flub, Foul-up, Fuckup, Pratfall
Category relationships: American Football, American Football Game, Baseball, Baseball Game
Derivative terms: Muff

2. Verb. Feel about uncertainly or blindly. "She groped for her glasses in the darkness of the bedroom"
Exact synonyms: Grope
Generic synonyms: Look For, Search, Seek
Derivative terms: Grope
Also: Grope For

3. Verb. Make one's way clumsily or blindly. "He fumbled towards the door"
Exact synonyms: Blunder
Generic synonyms: Go Across, Go Through, Pass

4. Verb. Handle clumsily.
Generic synonyms: Handle, Palm

5. Verb. Make a mess of, destroy or ruin. "The pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement"

6. Verb. Drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder. "Fumble a grounder"
Category relationships: Baseball, Baseball Game
Generic synonyms: Play

Definition of Fumble

1. v. i. To feel or grope about; to make awkward attempts to do or find something.

2. v. t. To handle or manage awkwardly; to crowd or tumble together.

Definition of Fumble

1. Verb. (transitive intransitive) To idly touch or nervously handle ¹

2. Verb. (transitive intransitive) To grope awkwardly in trying to find something ¹

3. Verb. (intransitive) To blunder uncertainly ¹

4. Verb. (transitive intransitive sports) To drop a ball or a baton etc. ¹

5. Noun. (sports) A ball etc. that has been dropped ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Fumble

1. to handle clumsily [v -BLED, -BLING, -BLES]

Medical Definition of Fumble

1. 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. "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) Origin: 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Fumble

fumarates
fumaric
fumaric acid
fumaric acidemia
fumaric aminase
fumaric hydrogenase
fumarine
fumarole
fumaroles
fumarolic
fumaronitrile
fumarprotocetraric acid
fumarylacetoacetate
fumatories
fumatory
fumble (current term)
fumbled
fumblefingers
fumbler
fumblers
fumbles
fumblest
fumbleth
fumbling
fumblingly
fumblings
fume
fume cupboard
fume hood
fumed

Literary usage of Fumble

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Walter William Skeat (1893)
"+ G. tappen, to grope, fumble ; cf. prov. G. tapp, tappe, fist, paw, blow, ... to pinch, to knead, to fumble to dabble, splash about ; formed by the ..."

2. The Expositor edited by Samuel Cox, William Robertson Nicoll, James Moffatt (1876)
"And in the daytime they fumble in darkness, And in the blaze of noon they grope as if it were night:— 15. Thus He saveth the poor from the sword of their ..."

3. A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1847)
"(2) To fumble ; to do anything imperfectly. Ver. dial. It occurs in the Schoole of Good Manners, 1629. (3) Thistle, or female-hemp. East. ..."

4. The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical by John Britton, Edward Wedlake Brayley, Joseph Nightingale, James Norris Brewer, John Evans, John Hodgson, Francis Charles Laird, Frederic Shoberl, John Bigland, Thomas Rees, Thomas Hood, John Harris (1815)
"Sit as still as a mouse, at the top of the house, And then you shall hoar how we fumble." Britton frequently played the viol du gamba at his concerts. ..."

5. Dansk-norsk-engelsk Ordbog by Johannes Magnussen (1902)
"... bort pick off; — ved nt. fumble, toy, meddle, with a thing, finger a thing; — med nt. busy one's self with a thing; — nt. ud af en knock st. out of one; ..."

6. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: Wherein All the Reason and by Ralph Cudworth, Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1845)
"... as likewise, that the Atheists, making such pretence to wit, it is a seasonable undertaking to evince, that they fumble in all their ratiocinations. ..."

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