as in fumbling
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way
I've somehow buggered up the program again
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for buggering (up)
Verb
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Boise State played an uneven first half in Tampa, fumbling twice and committing a huge penalty that gave life to a South Florida touchdown drive.—
Shaun Goodwin,
Idaho Statesman,
29 Aug. 2025 -
Facial recognition can help reduce wait times, eliminate the hassle of fumbling with documents and free up staff to focus on higher-value service.—
Jeff Kim,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
Verb
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But the Ravens are gaining on them after blowing a 15-point lead to the Bills in the fourth quarter of the teams’ epic opener Sunday night.—
Mike Sando,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
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Try to find a place that will block blowing or falling debris.—
CA Weather Bot,
Sacbee.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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As Nick in the present-adjacent day sure knows a hell of a lot about Dante Alighieri, perhaps the best person to criticize him and recognize his gaps in logic and knowledge, and how Nick is so profoundly screwing up his own life, would be Dante himself.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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What's mucking up the process is a telepathic outlier named The Mule (Pilou Asbæk), whose ravenous appetite for galactic dominance has created anomalies in Seldon's branching prognostications of how this whole ordeal will unfold.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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The hydrogen flow keeps vaporized tin from mucking up the system’s optics.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
12 June 2023
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Cite this Entry
“Buggering (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/buggering%20%28up%29. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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