fumble

Meaning

Verb

1. (intransitive, transitive) To handle nervously or awkwardly.
2. (intransitive, transitive) To grope awkwardly in trying to find something
3. (intransitive) To blunder uncertainly.
4. To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.
5. (intransitive, transitive) To drop a ball or a baton etc. by accident.
6. To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
7. (obsolete, slang) Of a man, to sexually underperform.

Noun

A ball etc. that has been dropped by accident.

Noun

A dessert similar to a cross between a fool and a crumble.

Synonyms

grope

muff

touch

bungle

feel

grope for

fail

botch

stroke

fondle

flub

fluff

foul up

fuck up

bollocks

ball up

blow

blunder

bobble

bollix

search

bumble

clumsy

fiddle

mess up

mishandle

muck up

screw up

spoil

unable

bollix up

bollocks up

botch up

louse up

scrabble

bodge

seek

🔍

slip up

rummage in

finger

twiddle

fumble about

go out

look for

failing to catch a ball

miscarry

fish

🐟

date

📅

muezzin

flounder

Translations

tasten

morrelen

tâtonner

scharrelen

tasten

chapucear

armeggiare

umhertasten

niquer

👉👌

fummeln

friemelen

arruïnar

أفْسد

grapejar

palpar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfʌmbəl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: -

Cognate with German: fummeln

Cognate with Old Norse: fálma

Cognate with Icelandic: fálma

Cognate with Danish: fumle

Cognate with Swedish: fumla

Cognate with Swedish: fim

Cognate with Danish: fim

Cognate with Norwegian: fim

Cognate with German: Feim

Cognate with English: foam

Cognate with Latin: palpo

In summary

Late Middle English, from Low German fummeln, fommeln, fammeln (German fummeln), or Dutch fommelen.
Or, perhaps from a Scandinavian/North Germanic source; compare related Old Norse fálma, Icelandic fálma, Danish fumle, especially Swedish fumla, famla, with variants: fumbla (“fumble”), fambla (“famble”), related to Swedish fim, fem (Danish fim, Norwegian fim, feima), with a root meaning of “cover, coating of foam or figuratively ditto”, cognate to German Feim (“surf”) and English foam. Possibly has (a more or less unconscious) connection to fathom (via Old Norse faðmr, Swedish famn) in the sense of “embrace”.
The ultimate origin for either could perhaps be imitative of fumbling. Or, from Proto-Indo-European *pal- (“to shake, swing”), see also Latin palpo (“I pat, touch softly”), and possibly Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan (“to feel”).