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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However, his key mistakes included an interception, being sacked six times, and fumbling the ball away twice.—
Matthew Couden,
MSNBC Newsweek,
14 Oct. 2025 -
There is no right moment, and the early scenes are about fumbling steps and the tentativeness of awkward new roles.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
10 Oct. 2025
Verb
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According to Reuters, 58 reports describe Teslas blowing through red lights, drifting into the wrong lanes and even crashing at intersections.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
18 Oct. 2025
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At this point, the breeze certainly seems to be blowing toward Tucker leaving the Windy City this winter.—
Jackson Roberts,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Best of all though is Reeves, channeling his own 1989 comic past from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure or a bit of Todd Higgins from Parenthood to bring deadpan delight as the well-meaning but constantly screwing up angel trying to do good but being so bad at it.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
7 Sep. 2025
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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 19 Oct. 2025.
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