Crossword clues for fumbling
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fumble \Fum"ble\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fumbled; p. pr. & vb. n. Fumbling.] [Akin to D. fommelen to crumple, fumble, Sw. fumla to fusuble, famla to grope, Dan. famle to grope, fumble, Icel. falme, AS. folm palm of the hand. See Feel, and cf. Fanble, Palm.]
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To feel or grope about; to make awkward attempts to do or find something.
Adams now began to fumble in his pockets.
--Fielding. -
To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly; as, to fumble for an excuse.
--Dryden.My understanding flutters and my memory fumbles.
--Chesterfield.Alas! how he fumbles about the domains.
--Wordsworth. -
To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers.
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, present-participle adjective from fumble (v.). Related: Fumblingly.
Wiktionary
n. An instance of clumsiness, especially of the hands or fingers. vb. (present participle of fumble English)
WordNet
adj. showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman"; "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf" [syn: bungling, clumsy, incompetent]
Usage examples of "fumbling".
We were a strange procession -- Dem Ria and Dem Loa sweeping down the steep staircase ahead of me, then me carrying the flechette pistol and fumbling the rucksack on my back, then little Bin followed by his sister, Ces Ambre, then, carefully locking the trapdoor behind him, Alem Mikail Dem Alem.
And behind it all I saw the ineffable malignity of primordial necromancy, black and amorphous, and fumbling greedily after me in the darkness to choke out the spirit that had dared to mock it by emulation.
A conclusion that sent Harold Smith scrambling for his green wastebasket and fumbling to his desktop an assortment of aspirins, antacids and other remedies.
They felt the slow, painful growth of the artist, the fumbling toward maturity of expression, the upheaval that had taken place in Paris, the passionate outburst of his powerful voice in Arles, which caught up all the strands of his years of labour.
They were chaffing her bawdily, one fumbling after her breasts, as the great wooden wheels rumbled by.
Querida watched Derk nervously fumbling for sugar and wondered what all the dogs were barking about in the distance.
After fumbling in his pocket, Dex produced a ring heavy with jingling keys.
Fumbling in her black bag she pulled forth a flaring certificate--of the regulation kind, not even engraved--which evidenced that Sarah Maria Ann Effingham was the legal owner of three hundred and thirty thousand shares of the capital stock of the Great Geyser Texan Petroleum and Llano Estacado Land Company.
By the time Fori came back, to announce that Midwinter Feast should be celebrated in eight days, most of them were still fumbling their way through this new drill.
Grimes slid a regretful glance at his own frumpish boat, but assented by fumbling for the barely visible port of the speedster.
An unwilling Glick cursed aloud as he tagged along, fumbling through a terrified blow-by-blow commentary.
He did a little straightening himself, hating the whole fumbling business.
He meditated a mighty draft: one hand was fumbling with his tags, while the other was extended in the act of grasping the jorum, when a knock on the portal, solemn and sonorous, arrested his fingers.
She was fumbling in her purse for her key ring with its remote keyless entry gadget when a pleasant voice stopped her in her tracks.
Then an order, and another man bending over Berthora, fumbling in her riding tunic, bringing forth a hand clenched about something, something Loyse had not seen.