bungle
Americanverb (used with object)
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bungles,
present (3rd person singular)
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bungled,
past participle, past
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bungling
present participle
verb (used without object)
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bungles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bungled,
past participle, past
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bungling
present participle
noun
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a bungling performance.
-
that which has been done clumsily or inadequately.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bunglesimple
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bunglessimple
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have bungledperfect
-
has bungledperfect
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am bunglingprogressive
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are bunglingprogressive
-
is bunglingprogressive
-
have been bunglingperfect progressive
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has been bunglingperfect progressive
Past
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bungledsimple
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had bungledperfect
-
was bunglingprogressive
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were bunglingprogressive
-
had been bunglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bungle
First recorded in 1520–30; of uncertain origin
Explanation
Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, dropping something, tripping and falling: these are some classic bungles — and they’re always embarrassing. Bungles are bummers, it’s true. Ever said something awkward in front of a grandparent or dropped a cake on someone’s lap? Those are bungles — accidents that make you blush. Bungle can also be used as a verb when someone acts like a fool or simply messes everything up, as in “The teacher bungled her lecture because she left her notes at home,” or “My bungling dad fell into the punch bowl. Again.”
Vocabulary lists containing bungle
And Then There Were None
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The Things They Carried
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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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.
See Examples For:
Olympic bosses, who never met an issue they couldn’t bungle, fretted about precedent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
Add the examples from psychology and the bungle we're making of the Earth we "manage," and humans don't have good evidence to put ourselves at the top of some kind of evolutionary hierarchy after all.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
So, yes, let’s hold college presidents’ feet to the fire when they bungle on a major issue.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 17, 2023
Do we have it in our power to choose comedy over catastrophe and thereby give ourselves another day to bungle along?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
They’re more likely to bungle the job than get it right.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Its title comes from a Delhi University slang: to "give it those ones" is to perform one's usual act - bungles included.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026
Charlotte and George marry, then George immediately bungles their budding marital bliss.
From Salon ● May 6, 2023
Compounding the bungles, the agency already has waived billions of dollars in overpayments, saying it’s money the state won’t try to collect.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 9, 2023
But if those were my worst bungles in 12 months, I’ll settle for them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
Take him with you, openly or secretly as you will, and if he bungles I shall deal with him.
From The Justice of the King by Hamilton Drummond
On the hard-news side, she bungled big moments like an interview with Vladimir Putin, who batted away her questions about 2016 election meddling with an exasperated performance of ignorance.
From Slate ● May 6, 2026
It began as gossip, and long-lens photographs of unknown provenance, and it has since unraveled into another textbook case of bungled crisis management.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Her claims have triggered demonstrations, promises to tighten the law and criticism that Chancellor Friedrich Merz has bungled his response.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
On the bungled hiring of a management team whose role was not entirely clear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025
Yet when the United States captured its first Nazi spy in 1938, the FBI bungled the case.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
All of this might be chalked up to bureaucratic bungling, if not for suspicious details.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
The Lions completed a historic comeback, with a little help from a bungling David Campese.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2025
Funneled into the framework of a prom slasher, the bungling of "Fear Street: Prom Queen" feels downright pernicious.
From Salon ● May 24, 2025
She also faced accusations of bungling the city’s finances, contributing to a dire budget shortfall this fiscal year that will almost certainly require sweeping cuts across government departments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2025
In a way this was Finny’s view, except that naturally he saw it comically, as a huge and intensely practical joke, played by fat and foolish old men bungling away behind the scenes.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
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.
