Bungling

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bungle \Bun"gle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Bungled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Bungling}.] [Prob. a diminutive from, akin to bang; cf.
     Prov. G. bungen to beat, bang, OSw. bunga. See {Bang}.]
     To act or work in a clumsy, awkward manner.
     [1913 Webster]



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bungling \Bun"gling\, a.
     Unskillful; awkward; clumsy; as, a bungling workman. --Swift.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           They make but bungling work.             --Dryden.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  bungling
       adj 1: showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman";
              "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a
              shelf" [syn: {clumsy}, {fumbling}, {incompetent}]
       2: not skillful in physical movement especially with the hands;
          "a bumbling mechanic"; "a bungling performance";
          "ham-handed governmental interference"; "could scarcely
          empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor
          creature"- Mary H. Vorse [syn: {bumbling}, {butterfingered},
           {ham-fisted}, {ham-handed}, {handless}, {heavy-handed}, {left-handed}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  75 Moby Thesaurus words for "bungling":
     all thumbs, awkward, bad job, blunderheaded, blunderheadedness,
     blundering, boggling, boorish, botch, botched, botchery, botching,
     bumbling, butterfingered, careless, carelessness, clownish, clumsy,
     clumsy-fisted, cumbersome, deficient, fingers all thumbs, fumbling,
     gauche, gawkish, gawky, graceless, half-assed, ham-fisted,
     ham-handed, haphazard, haphazardness, heavy-handed, hit-and-miss,
     hit-or-miss, hulking, hulky, inelegant, left-hand, left-handed,
     loose ends, loutish, lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, maladroit,
     messiness, messy, muffing, oafish, ponderous, promiscuous,
     sad work, slapdash, slipshod, slipshoddiness, slipshoddy,
     slipshodness, sloppiness, sloppy, slovenliness, slovenly,
     slovenly performance, slovenry, sluttish, sluttishness, stiff,
     too many cooks, uncouth, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandy, untidiness,
     untidy, unwieldy