bumbling

1 of 2

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

bumbling

2 of 2

present participle of bumble entry 1, bumble entry 2

Examples of bumbling in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Rattled by the mystery of the bull, Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the bumbling, trigger-happy police chief of Hope Harbor, drives back into town and is confronted with a disaster zone. — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2026

Led by a stellar Peter Capaldi, the show documented the bumbling ineptitude of British government staffers, including ministers, advisors and communications personnel. — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2026

In much of the country, the popular conception of self-driving cars is something between a bumbling idiot and a mechanical death trap. — Rogé Karma, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2026

The bumbling Giants concluded a nine-game homestand, the team’s longest of the season, with a 3-6 record. — Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 16 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1660, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bumbling

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