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fumble

Pronunciation: /ˈfʌmbəl/

The English word “fumble” has 10 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To handle nervously or awkwardly.
  2. To grope awkwardly in trying to find something
  3. To blunder uncertainly.
  4. To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.
  5. To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.
  6. To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
  7. Of a man, to sexually underperform.

noun

  1. The dropping of a ball by accident.
  2. A clumsy sexual encounter.
  3. A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.