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lousing up

verb

present participle of louse up
1
as in fumbling
to make a mistake everything is riding on this project, so we can't afford to louse up

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in screwing up
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way I loused up the wallpapering job in the bedroom—the seams show too much

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for lousing up
  1. fumbling
  2. screwing up
  3. stumbling
  4. blowing
  5. slipping up
  6. fouling up
  7. tripping
  8. 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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, ABC News, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of fouling up
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
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.

Browse Nearby Words

lousiness
lousing up
lousy
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Lousing up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lousing%20up. Accessed 29 Sep. 2026.

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Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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