fumble
Syllables: fum·ble/ˈfʌmbəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈfʊmbəl/
fumble verb: to handle nervously or awkwardly.
Verb
fumble (third-person singular simple present fumbles, present participle fumbling, simple past and past participle fumbled)
- To handle nervously or awkwardly.
- Waiting for the interview, he fumbled with his tie.
- He fumbled the key into the lock.
- To grope awkwardly in trying to find something
- He fumbled for his keys.
- He fumbled his way to the light-switch.
- Synonyms:
- grubble
- To blunder uncertainly.
- He fumbled through his prepared speech.
- To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.
- to fumble for an excuse
- My understanding stutters, and my memory fumbles.1711 August 12, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, letter to Dr. Chevenix
- To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.
- Henderson's best strike on goal saw goalkeeper Kingson uncomfortably fumble his measured shot around the post.2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC
- To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
- I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Of a man, to sexually underperform.
Noun (1)
fumble (plural fumbles)
Noun (2)
fumble (plural fumbles)
fumble meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
fumble in Tamil
- தடுமாறு, தடுமாற்றம், தட்டித் தடவு
fumble in Urdu
- fumble
- ادھر ادھر ہاتھ مارنا idhar udhar hāth mārnā
fumble in Malayalam
- search blindly, grope, fish
- തപ്പിത്തടയുക, തപ്പിനോക്കുക, തപ്പുക, ഇരുട്ടിൽ തപ്പുക, തടവുക, അന്വേഷിക്കുക
- flounder, stumble, blunder
- തപ്പിത്തപ്പിനടക്കുക, ഇടറുക, ഇരടുക, എരടുക, തെന്നുക, കാലിടറുക
- drop, miss, mishandle
- പിടികിട്ടാതെപോകുക, പിടിത്തം വിട്ടുപോകുക, തെറ്റിപ്പോകുക, ചുവട്പിഴക്കുക, വീണുപോകുക, കെെയിൽനിന്നു വിട്ടുപോകുക
- bungle, mess up, make a mess of
- കുഴപ്പമാക്കുക, കുഴപ്പത്തിലാക്കുക, തകരാറാക്കുക, തെറ്റായി കെെകാര്യം ചെയ്യുക, ക്രമരഹിതമായി പ്രവർത്തിക്കുക, ക്രമവും വ്യവസ്ഥയും തെറ്റിക്കുക
fumble in Kannada
- ತಡವರಿಸು, ತಡಕಾಡು, ಅಡ್ಡಾದಿಡ್ಡಿಯಾಗಿ ಕೈಯಾಡಿಸು, ಗೊಣಗುಟ್ಟು
More languagesFewer languages
- fumble in Assamese
- খেপিওৱা khepiüa
- fumble in Indonesian
- meraba-raba
Examples of fumble in a sentence
- The team won off a late-game fumble by an opposing player.
- He decided to take the C downtown and fumbled through a blizzardy wind to Central Park West.
- Guy started fumbling with his zipper, trying unsuccessfully to squeeze off the flow of urine.
Synonyms of fumble
Forms of fumble
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | fumbles |
| present participle | fumbling |
| past participle | fumbled |
| past | fumbled |
| alternative form (obsolete, dialectal) | famble |
| alternative form (obsolete, dialectal) | fimble |
| Noun | |
| plural | fumbles |
Origin of fumble
From late Middle English, from Low German fummeln, fommeln, fammeln (German fummeln), or Dutch fommelen. Or, perhaps from a Scandinavian/North Germanic source; compare related Old Norse fálma, Icelandic fálma, Danish fumle, especially Swedish fumla, famla, with variants: fumbla (“fumble”), fambla (“famble”), related to Swedish fim, fem (Danish fim, Norwegian fim, feima), with a root meaning of “cover, coating of foam or figuratively ditto”, cognate to German Feim (“surf”) and English foam. Possibly has (a more or less unconscious) connection to fathom (via Old Norse faðmr, Swedish famn) in the sense of “embrace”. The ultimate origin for either could perhaps be imitative of fumbling. Or, from Proto-Indo-European *pal- (“to shake, swing”), see also Latin palpo (“to pat, touch softly”), and possibly Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan (“to feel”).
Blend of fool + crumble.
Words formed from fumble
Words that rhyme with fumble
Questions about fumble
- What does fumble mean?
- Fumble means to handle nervously or awkwardly.
- What is fumble in Tamil?
- Fumble in Tamil is தடுமாறு, தடுமாற்றம், தட்டித் தடவு. See Fumble meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fumble?
- Fumble can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce fumble?
- Fumble is pronounced /ˈfʌmbəl/.
- What is the past tense of fumble?
- The past tense of fumble is fumbled.
Words near fumble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fumble (page history and authors); fumble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ادھر ادھر ہاتھ مارنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); fumble (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); fumble (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fumble.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fumble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fumble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.