Word Study
bungling
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Adjective bungling has 2 senses
- bungling(s = adj.all) clumsy, fumbling, incompetent - showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman"; "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf"
- bungling(s = adj.all) bumbling, butterfingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, left-handed - lacking physical movement skills, 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"
CIDE DICTIONARY
bungling, a.
Unskillful; awkward; clumsy; as, a bungling workman. Swift. [1913 Webster]
"They make but bungling work."
[1913 Webster]
THESAURUS
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, unwieldyROGET THESAURUS
bungling
Unskillfulness
N unskillfulness, want of skill, incompetence, incompentency, inability, infelicity, indexterity, inexperience, disqualification, unproficiency, quackery, folly, stupidity indiscretion, thoughtlessness, sabotage, mismanagement, misconduct, impolicy, maladministration, misrule, misgovernment, misapplication, misdirection, misfeasance, petticoat government, absence of rule, rule of thumb, bungling, failure, screw loose: too many cooks, blunder, etourderie gaucherie, act of folly, balourdise, botch, botchery, bad job, sad work, sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild- goose chase, bungler, fool, unskillful, inexpert, bungling, awkward, clumsy, unhandy, lubberly, gauche, maladroit, left-handed, heavy-handed, slovenly, slatternly, gawky, adrift, at fault, inapt, unapt, inhabile, untractable, unteachable, giddy, inconsiderate, stupid inactive, incompetent, unqualified, disqualified, ill-qualified, unfit, quackish, raw, green, inexperienced, rusty, out of practice, unaccustomed, unused, untrained &c, uninitiated, unconversant, shiftless, unstatesmanlike, unadvised, ill-advised, misadvised, ill-devised, ill-imagined, ill-judged, ill-contrived, ill-conducted, unguided, misguided, misconducted, foolish, wild, infelicitous, penny wise and pound foolish, one's fingers being all thumbs, the right hand forgets its cunning, il se noyerait dans une goutte d'eau, incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim, out of the frying pan into the fire, non omnia possumus omnes, unskillfulness, want of skill, incompetence, incompentency, inability, infelicity, indexterity, inexperience, disqualification, unproficiency, quackery, folly, stupidity indiscretion, thoughtlessness, sabotage, mismanagement, misconduct, impolicy, maladministration, misrule, misgovernment, misapplication, misdirection, misfeasance, petticoat government, absence of rule, rule of thumb, bungling, failure, screw loose: too many cooks, blunder, etourderie gaucherie, act of folly, balourdise, botch, botchery, bad job, sad work, sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild- goose chase, bungler, fool, unskillful, inexpert, bungling, awkward, clumsy, unhandy, lubberly, gauche, maladroit, left-handed, heavy-handed, slovenly, slatternly, gawky, adrift, at fault, inapt, unapt, inhabile, untractable, unteachable, giddy, inconsiderate, stupid inactive, incompetent, unqualified, disqualified, ill-qualified, unfit, quackish, raw, green, inexperienced, rusty, out of practice, unaccustomed, unused, untrained &c, uninitiated, unconversant, shiftless, unstatesmanlike, unadvised, ill-advised, misadvised, ill-devised, ill-imagined, ill-judged, ill-contrived, ill-conducted, unguided, misguided, misconducted, foolish, wild, infelicitous, penny wise and pound foolish, one's fingers being all thumbs, the right hand forgets its cunning, il se noyerait dans une goutte d'eau, incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim, out of the frying pan into the fire, non omnia possumus omnes.
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