bumbling

adjective

bum·​bling ˈbəm-b(ə-)liŋ 

: awkwardly blundering or faltering

a bumbling speaker

: prone to or marked by foolish mistakes

a bumbling attempt to fix the problem

… many Americans see the F.D.A. as bumbling and inefficient …

—Herbert Burkholz

bumblingly adverb

… none of them truly wants him in her home while he tries, bumblingly, to get his act together …

—Laura Collins-Hughes

Examples of bumbling in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the original Home Alone, Kevin is forced to defend him home from two bumbling burglars by setting various booby traps around the house. —Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 21 Dec. 2025

That’s fine by C, who harbors little feeling for our bumbling man anyway. —Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025

For technology-phobes, the clues are also taped to the banquet room wall by a pair of bumbling detectives. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Dec. 2025

Meanwhile, the Browns looked every bumbling bit of a 3-9 club with rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders making his first home start. —Cam Inman, Mercury News, 30 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1660, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bumbling

• crumbling
• fumbling
• grumbling
• humbling
• mumbling
• rumbling
• stumbling
• tumbling