fumbling
/ˈfʌmblɪŋ
/noun [mass noun]
1The action of fumbling.The ones I receive now are rife with disgust at bureaucratic fumbling, with rage at an unspecified they who are in charge of everything from predicting which levees would break to choosing which people will return....
- My friend Brian says it's high-school fumbling.
- The actors create a relaxed chemistry together as they veer between the solidarity of the three musketeers and the dimwitted fumbling of the three stooges.
1.1 (also fumblings) informal The action of fondling someone for sexual pleasure: a few furtive fumblings and unfulfilled flirtations...
- Or my more recent sexual fumblings and drinking escapades.
- The smell of perfume takes me right back to those furtive fumblings.
- With the same detached honesty he famously records the great events, the invaluable ongoing political story, as well as his own foolishnesses and lustful fumblings.
adjective
Doing or handling something clumsily: she bolted the door with fumbling fingers...
- Far from being plugged with a slug of lead, the loser's fumbling fingers have only cost him a little face in front of his fellow fast draw enthusiasts.
- With fumbling fingers, I slowly took my change from her gentle flour-dusted palms and prayed that she was just a little podgy and not pregnant, catching her eye for another one of those smiles as I jangled out of the door.
- The jackknife was in my hand as soon as my fumbling fingers could manage the pockets on my jumpsuit.
Derivatives
fumblingly
- Gilligan has spent much of the past two years reworking the book, particularly the more fumblingly intimate passages.
- The emotional walls, built up brick by brick over years come tumbling down as Clint and Kyle fumblingly begin to explore the emotions which have festered since childhood.
- She fumblingly tries to gather together the shards of her destroyed life.