bungling
- adjective
- /ˈbʌŋɡlɪŋ/
- The team's bungling errors led to their unexpected defeat in the game.
Examples
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She had been a maid until the director brought her in, telling his bungling male assistant that his housekeeper could do a better job.
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She was known for her bungling style of cooking, often burning her meals.
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His bungling attempts to fix the car only made the problem worse.
Synonyms
Not able to do a job or task well
Moving in an awkward, unsteady way that causes accidents
Ruined because someone did the job badly
Acting awkward and clumsy in movement or when handling things
Clumsy and not good with their hands
Made carelessly and without attention to detail
Doing things in an awkward, clumsy way
Not careful and clumsy when using hands or doing tasks
Clumsy when using the hands, often dropping or breaking things
Not good with your hands and clumsy
Someone who often drops things with their hands
Made in a clumsy way and not of good quality
Antonyms
How Clumsy
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Bungling comes from bungle, which likely grew from bung, a word meaning 'to plug' or 'to stuff'. A helpful image is someone stuffing a repair into a hole badly, and that idea of doing something roughly or wrong is why bungling means doing a job clumsily or making a mess.