WordWeb Online

1. Showing lack of skill or aptitude
   "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf"
   - bungling, clumsy, incompetent

1. Feel about uncertainly or blindly
   "She fumbled for her glasses in the darkness of the bedroom"
   - grope
    
2. Make one's way clumsily or blindly
   "He fumbled towards the door"
   - blunder
    
3. Handle clumsily
    
4. Make a mess of, destroy or ruin
   "I fumbled the dinner and we had to eat out"
   - botch, bodge [Brit], bumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub [N. Amer], screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bobble [N. Amer], mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, bugger, balls up
    
5. Drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder
   "fumble a grounder"

See also: fumbler, unskilled

Type of: fail, go across, go through, go wrong, handle, look for, miscarry, palm, pass, play, search, seek

Encyclopedia: Fumble