Fumbling

fumbling
    adj 1: showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman";
           "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a
           shelf" [syn: {bungling}, {clumsy}, {fumbling},
           {incompetent}]
    

Fumble \Fum"ble\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Fumbled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Fumbling}.] [Akin to D. fommelen to crumple, fumble, Sw.
   fumla to fusuble, famla to grope, Dan. famle to grope,
   fumble, Icel. falme, AS. folm palm of the hand. See {Feel},
   and cf. {Fanble}, {Palm}.]
   1. To feel or grope about; to make awkward attempts to do or
      find something.
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            Adams now began to fumble in his pockets.
                                                  --Fielding.
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   2. To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly; as, to
      fumble for an excuse. --Dryden.
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            My understanding flutters and my memory fumbles.
                                                  --Chesterfield.
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            Alas! how he fumbles about the domains.
                                                  --Wordsworth.
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   3. To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
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            I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with
            flowers.                              --Shak.
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48 Moby Thesaurus words for "fumbling":
      all thumbs, awkward, blunderheaded, blunderheadedness, blundering,
      boggling, boorish, botchery, botching, bumbling, bungling,
      butterfingered, careless, carelessness, clownish, clumsy,
      clumsy-fisted, cumbersome, fingers all thumbs, gauche, gawkish,
      gawky, graceless, ham-fisted, ham-handed, heavy-handed, hulking,
      hulky, inelegant, left-hand, left-handed, loutish, lubberly,
      lumbering, lumpish, maladroit, muffing, oafish, ponderous,
      sloppiness, sloppy, stiff, too many cooks, uncouth, ungainly,
      ungraceful, unhandy, unwieldy