blunder
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
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to move or act blindly, stupidly, or without direction or steady guidance.
Without my glasses I blundered into the wrong room.
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to make a gross or stupid mistake, especially through carelessness or mental confusion.
Just pray that he doesn't blunder again and get the names wrong.
verb (used with object)
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to bungle; botch.
Several of the accounts were blundered by that new assistant.
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to utter thoughtlessly; blurt out.
He blundered his surprise at their winning the award.
noun
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a stupid or clumsy mistake
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a foolish tactless remark
verb
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to make stupid or clumsy mistakes
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to make foolish tactless remarks
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to act clumsily; stumble
he blundered into a situation he knew nothing about
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(tr) to mismanage; botch
Related Words
See mistake.
Other Word Forms
- blunderer noun
- blundering noun
- blunderingly adverb
- nonblundering adjective
- nonblunderingly adverb
- outblunder verb (used with object)
- superblunder noun
- unblundering adjective
Etymology
Origin of blunder
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English blunderen, blondren (verb), from Old Norse blunda “to shut one's eyes, nap”; compare Norwegian dialect blundra
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
WH Smith, which has lost its chief executive and seen its shares fall 40% following the accounting blunder, said it had been a difficult end to the year.
From BBC
He was fortunate to still be there after Harry Brook dropped a sitter in the slips, the latest in a long line of fielding blunders by England this series, before starting to play his shots.
From Barron's
She would do her country a service by vetoing the blunder.
He said misinformation about the virus made him "despair" and warned that we must not "blunder into the future without looking back at the past".
From BBC
Van Dijk nearly made amends for his earlier blunder when he glanced a header against the bar from Mohamed Salah's corner.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
