BUNGLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bungling mean? 

• BUNGLING (adjective)
  The adjective BUNGLING has 2 senses:

1. showing lack of skill or aptitude

2. lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands

  Familiarity information: BUNGLING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUNGLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing lack of skill or aptitude

Synonyms:

bungling; clumsy; fumbling; incompetent

Context example:

his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf

Similar:

unskilled (not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands

Synonyms:

bumbling; bungling; butterfingered; ham-fisted; ham-handed; handless; heavy-handed; left-handed

Context example:

could scarcely empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor creature

Similar:

maladroit (not adroit)

 Context examples 

“We'll all swing and sun-dry for your bungling.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He was warm, and bungling of speech, and very happy, as he replied to her, and there was dancing in his mind, throughout the telephone conversation, the memory of Browning and of sickly Elizabeth Barrett.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)