as in clumsy
showing or marked by a lack of skill and tact (as in dealing with a situation)
I refuse to let that bungling incompetent insult me again
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in fumbling
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way
bungled the job the first time she tried to do it
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of bungling
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2025
Verb
When Souleymane rehearses his account, in an early scene, Barry admonishes him for blandly reciting (and often bungling) the false facts he’s been given.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bungling
Adjective
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Arturs Silovs looked a bit clumsy in the first period and his rebound control was less than stellar.—
Josh Yohe,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
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Actually, Alma does suffer from ulcers, which cause her extraordinary stomach pain and vomiting at inconvenient moments, and cause viewers to wonder not if but when such clumsy symbolic traits will be trotted out in the future.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
9 Oct. 2025
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
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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
Adjective
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In all of the courses, the pedagogy is an awkward pastiche of traditions, combining Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Slavic paganism, Siberian shamanism, and Asian spiritual practices, spiked with elements of Jungian and American pop psychology.—
Julia Ioffe,
New Yorker,
19 Oct. 2025
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Pignato shared a scene from a recent consult with a rival company that wanted advice on how to bring AI into its engineering workflow, and an awkward generational mismatch.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
19 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Raking, blowing, and using a mower collection bag are useful for managing leaves on turf.—
Megan Hughes,
Better Homes & Gardens,
19 Oct. 2025
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Maybe Lewis wasn’t blowing smoke but telling the truth.—
Kirk Kenney,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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This will be enough to top the eshop charts, sell out stores and recover some of the reputation damage from Scarlet and Violet’s botched launch.—
Ryan Gaur,
Rolling Stone,
14 Oct. 2025
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The Yankees capitalized on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s botched handling of a groundball in the first, as well.—
Brendan Kuty,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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With this, her ninth picture, Reichardt takes her life-long fascination with large scale thievery and unreels a museum robbery that ranks as amazingly inept.—
Stephen Schaefer,
Boston Herald,
19 Oct. 2025
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The Brewers, whose 97-65 record was the best in MLB this season, were inept in the series scoring five runs on 14 hits in the four games.—
Barry M. Bloom,
Sportico.com,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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All of the charges were ultimately discharged after she was found incompetent for court proceedings by a doctor.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
14 Oct. 2025
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Look only to the Bengals, Panthers, Browns and Jets, Sunday’s opponent, for examples of what can go wrong with owners with short pockets, short tempers and/or outsized influence from the unqualified and incompetent.—
Troy Renck,
Denver Post,
11 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The inexperienced head coach has sensibly made only minor tweaks since taking over, sticking with the compact, direct football that has served Brentford so well.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
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Scaloni, whose team finished in first place in South American World Cup qualifying, was using Friday’s match, and the Tuesday match against Puerto Rico at Chase Stadium, to integrate some of the younger and inexperienced players on the roster.—
Michelle Kaufman,
Miami Herald,
11 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Bungling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bungling. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.
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