bumbling
adjective
bum·bling
ˈbəm-b(ə-)liŋ 
: awkwardly blundering or faltering
a bumbling speaker
: prone to or marked by foolish mistakes
a bumbling attempt to fix the problem
… many Americans see the F.D.A. as bumbling and inefficient …—
Herbert Burkholz
Herbert Burkholz
bumblingly
adverb
… none of them truly wants him in her home while he tries, bumblingly, to get his act together …
—Laura Collins-Hughes
Laura Collins-Hughes
Examples of bumbling in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In such a milieu, she was encouraged to read and study, but was soon married off to an even grander aristocrat, the Marquis du Châtelet, a well-meaning, somewhat bumbling Army officer, who was interested only in his military exploits and soon forbidden by his wife to discuss them at the table.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
Even better than in the other seasons’ finales, which still ended on a note of triumph but featured more bumbling.
—Brian Grubb, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2024
The calls for Biden to step aside came after his bumbling performance at the first presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27.
—Aron Solomon, Newsweek, 9 July 2024
Her antagonists are a bumbling trio of toughs, drawn with a sharp eye for the immigrant demographics of Brighton Beach: two Armenian Americans, Toros (Karren Karagulian) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and a Russian, Igor (Yura Borisov).
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bumbling 
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Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
Even better than in the other seasons’ finales, which still ended on a note of triumph but featured more bumbling.
—Brian Grubb, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2024
The calls for Biden to step aside came after his bumbling performance at the first presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27.
—Aron Solomon, Newsweek, 9 July 2024
Her antagonists are a bumbling trio of toughs, drawn with a sharp eye for the immigrant demographics of Brighton Beach: two Armenian Americans, Toros (Karren Karagulian) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and a Russian, Igor (Yura Borisov).
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bumbling
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Cite this Entry
“Bumbling.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bumbling. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
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