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fouling up

verb

present participle of foul up
1
as in fumbling
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way tried not to foul up the football play

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stumbling
to make a mistake unfortunately, I fouled up and in my e-mail gave everyone the wrong date for the meeting

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fouling up Then police closed that, too — at midafternoon Tuesday after a report of a suspicious package — fouling up traffic for New Yorkers even more. — ABC News, 23 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fouling up
  1. fumbling
  2. stumbling
  3. screwing up
  4. slipping up
  5. blowing
  6. tripping
  7. mucking up
Verb
  • The fight sequences have an engaging messiness, the characters often fumbling around rather than delivering expert moves.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Clinicians should be working to support us, not fumbling incompetently or making paternalistic determinations.
    — Meg LeDuc, STAT, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of fumbling
Verb
  • One of my favorite projects involved walking across the largest city in the Lower 48, only with the general framework of a plan, stumbling upon all kinds of interesting people, places and history.
    — Mark Woods, Florida Times-Union, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Ian informs the sisters that Kylie isn’t merely stumbling into arcane rituals; someone is drawing her to the dark side.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of stumbling
Verb
  • So not screwing up Spider-Man is about putting a beating heart at the center rather than a bunch of spectacle.
    — Chris Lee, Vulture, 3 Aug. 2026
  • The fear of failure can do as much harm as actually screwing up.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2026
Definition of screwing up
Verb
  • Arsenal are firmly in title-chasing mode and goal difference could still prove crucial, despite Manchester City slipping up against Everton on Monday.
    — Abdul Rehman, New York Times, 7 May 2026
  • But knowing Olson’s proclivity for slipping up in hysterical fashion made the match that much more appealing.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 7 May 2026
Definition of slipping up
Verb
  • The one in the middle is blowing a bubble, with her legs stretched out and propped up on the chair of the girl in front of her.
    — Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2026
  • During El Nino, low-level surface winds blowing from east to west across the Pacific are weakened or sometimes reversed.
    — John Raby, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of blowing
Verb
  • This movement of the fabric can shorten a hemline and secure a train so someone can easily move about without tripping or having extra fabric dragging on the ground.
    — Shelby Wax, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Users of classical psychedelics who underwent a major trip on the Fourth of July expressed reduced support for partisan political violence, whereas tripping around the time of the Democratic and Republican conventions increased it.
    — J. B. MacKinnon, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of tripping
Verb
  • But life has a way of mucking up even the best plans, sometimes all at once and sometimes bit by bit and usually a little of both.
    — Brian Grubb, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Amid the memory shortage that's mucking up component prices globally, at least Qualcomm has some promising news for folks hoping to pay less for a daily driver.
    — Florence Ion, PC Magazine, 7 May 2026
Definition of mucking up

Browse Nearby Words

fouling
fouling up
foully
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Fouling up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fouling%20up. Accessed 1 Oct. 2026.

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Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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