bumbling

[buhm-bling]

adjective

1. liable to make awkward blunders.

   a bumbling mechanic.

2. clumsily incompetent or ineffectual.

   bumbling diplomacy.

noun

1. the act or practice of making blunders.

   The bumbling of their officers cost them the battle.

Other Word Forms

• bumblingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of bumbling¹

First recorded in 1525–35; bumble ¹ + -ing ²

Example Sentences

That was the path he had chosen: to die to all who knew him, and to all he knew—his devoted wife, his bumbling, nearsighted son, his palatial home, his vast fortune.

Read more on Literature

He says he feels like he's the "bumbling buffoon" in the "walled garden that is traditional publishing" and that he's committed a kind of "literary heist".

Read more on BBC

John Kennedy’s greatest fear was that he and Nikita Khrushchev were making the same mistakes as past leaders, bumbling down the same ruinous road.

Read more on Literature

The nice ladies who run it take pity when you, the bumbling visitor, spill an entire café con leche all over yourself and the floor.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Flanked by pictures of owls and bumbling cartoon hunter Elmer Fudd, Kennedy praised barred owls for their “soulful eyes” and “incredibly soft” feathers.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• inept