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Definition of Fumble
1. Verb. Feel about uncertainly or blindly. "She groped for her glasses in the darkness of the bedroom"
2. Noun. (sports) dropping the ball.
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
3. Verb. Make one's way clumsily or blindly. "He fumbled towards the door"
4. Verb. Handle clumsily.
5. Verb. Make a mess of, destroy or ruin. "The pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement"
Generic synonyms: Fail, Go Wrong, Miscarry
Derivative terms: Ballup, Botch, Botcher, Bumbler, Bungle, Bungler, Flub, Fluff, Foul-up, Fuckup, Fumbler, Mess-up, Screwup, Spoil, Spoilage, Spoiling
6. Verb. Drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder. "Fumble a grounder"
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
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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