v. Also 6 fomble. [Of obscure origin: equivalent forms exist in other Teut. langs.; cf. Du. fommelen, LG. fummeln, fommeln, Sw. fumla, to fumble, grope; prob. onomatopœic; cf. bumble, jumble, mumble, stumble, also FAMBLE, FIMBLE vbs. Possibly the formation of the word may have been in part suggested by the sb. which appeals as OE. folm(e, OS. *folm (pl. folmos), OHG. folma hand; cf. ON. falma (Icel. fálma) to grope, with which Sw. famla, Da. famle (= FAMBLE v.). are commonly regarded as identical.]

1

  1.  intr. To use one’s hands or fingers awkwardly or ineffectually; to grope about. To fumble at: to make clumsy attempts at doing or handling (something). To fumble for or after: to make clumsy attempts to reach or grasp. Also to fumble about.

2

1534.  More, On the Passion, Wks. 1293/1. The dyuel … should not be able to reache hys [Christe’s] heade … but only to fumble about his foote.

3

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1858/2. She desired him to looke in his Testament. Then he fumbled and sought about him for one.

4

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., II. iii. 14. For after I saw him fumble with the Sheets, and play with Flowers … I knew there was but one way.

5

1602.  Dekker, Satiro-mastix, Wks. 1873, I. 219. What made these paire of Shittle-cockes heere? What doe they fumble for? Ile ha none of these Kites fluttering about they carkas, for thou shalt bee my West Indyes, and none but trim Tucca shall discouer thee.

6

a 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 108. Those, that cannot play, delight to fumble on Instruments.

7

1739.  R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 251.

        He vainly fumbles at the fatal Door;
Nor longer can his Bus’ness be forbore.

8

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 288. Our solids resemble a quantity of fine paper piled up in a stationer’s shop, if you set a man with gloves on, or a rustic whose hands are hard by labour, to take off a single sheet, he will fumble about a long while, and at last take up two or three together: so if we attempt to take off a superficies we cannot do our work neatly, but our clumsy-fisted imagination pulls up another adhering to it beneath.

9

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 169. Seeing him lay down his pipe and begin to fumble with his walking-staff.

10

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 361. The soldiers were still fumbling with the muzzles of their guns … when the whole flood of Macleans, Macdonalds, and Camerons came down.

11

1859.  Kisgsley, Misc. (1860), II. 139. He … fumbled for the bible in his boot.

12

1874.  Burnand, My Time, xiv. 119. ‘Let me see—let me see,’ said Mr. Comberwood, fumbling about in all his pockets, one after the other, as though he had mislaid a friend or two in an odd corner.

13

  b.  transf. and fig.

14

1612.  T. Taylor, Comm. Titus iii. 5. He will be nibling and fumbling at all these as far as he dare.

15

1656.  H. More, Enthus. Tri. (1662), 1. The foulness of his Mind makes him fumble very dotingly in the use thereof.

16

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 683. Our Mechanick or Atomick Theists, will have their Atoms, never so much as once to have Fumbled, in these their Fortuitous Motions.

17

1686.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., v. (ed. 3), 47. If he [horse] fumbles with his Corn, then give him no more at that time.

18

1784.  J. Barry, in Lect. Paint., vi. (1848), 223. Any artist … fumbling through three or four strata of colour before he can find them.

19

1870.  M. D. Conway, Earthw. Pilgr., xxiii. 267. Englishmen are still fumbling about Mount Sinai in the East.

20

  c.  ? quasi-trans. with complement.

21

1864.  Lowell, Fireside Trav., 110. A hostler fumbled the door open, and stood staring at but not seeing us, with the sleep sticking out all over him.

22

1887.  Punch, 19 March, 143/2. Dizzy, then Premier, fumbled his eyeglass into position.

23

  2.  trans. To handle awkwardly or with nervous clumsiness. Also with on, out, over.

24

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 174. And with a palsie fumbling on his Gorget, Shake in and out the Riuet.

25

a. 1658.  Cleveland, To T. C., 17. A Nut which when thou’st crack’d and fumbled o’er Thou’lt find the Squirrel has been there before.

26

1681.  Dryden, Spanish Friar, I. i. His greasy bald-pate choir Came fumbling o’er the beads, in such an agony, They told ’em false for fear.

27

1756.  Connoisseur, No. 134 (1774), IV. 228. The old women … fumbling over their tattered testaments till they have found the text.

28

1801.  Gabrielli, Myst. Husband, I. 235. The fugitives … having fumbled out their bundles in the dark, first handed them to him.

29

1840.  Thackeray, Bedford-Row Conspir., i. [He] came forward, looking very red, and fumbling two large kid gloves.

30

1894.  Sala, Things I have seen, II. xx. 254. The coin … I very soon tarnished by fumbling it … between my hot, moist little fingers.

31

  fig.  1895 Westm. Gaz., 30 May, 3/1. His incident must come to him naturally or he fumbles it.

32

  b.  spec. In games with a ball, To fumble the ball: to fail to take it ‘cleanly’; to stop or catch it clumsily.

33

  c.  To fumble one’s way: to find it by groping.

34

1801.  Gabrielli, Myst. Husband, III. 80. She started up, and fumbled her way down the dark stairs.

35

1879.  G. W. Cable, Old Creole Days, 13. Late that night a small square man in a wet overcoat, fumbled his way into the damp entrance of the house, stumbled up the cracking stairs, unlocked, after many languid efforts, the door of the two rooms, and falling over the hair-trunk, slept until the morning sunbeams climbed over the balcony and in at the window, and shone full on the back of his head.

36

  3.  To wrap up clumsily, huddle together. Also with up.

37

c. 1572.  Gascoigne, Fruites Warre (1831), 212. Constreynd to sit … Close in a corner fumbled vp for feare.

38

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 58. What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine armes? Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., IV. iv. 48. As many farwels as be stars in heauen, With distinct breath, and consign’d kisses to them, He fumbles vp into a loose adiew.

39

1621.  Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., III. xiii. 189. If necessitie driue them abroad, they send them [their women] foorth so couered, vailed, and fumbled vp, that who so meets them would thinke they were spirits or maskers.

40

1647.  Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 140. So many fumble this, last and next weeks devotion all in a prayer.

41

1681.  [see FUMBLING ppl. a. d].

42

1830.  Fraser’s Mag., I. 342. The attenuated, sham, filagree work … wherewith Mr. Thomas Moore has thought fit to fumble up the personages of his ‘Lalla Rookh.’

43

  4.  slang. (Cf. FUMBLER b, FUMBLING ppl. a. c) Also absol. or intr.

44

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 134. Ȝit leit I neuer that larbar … fumyll me, without a fee gret.

45

c. 1690.  Sat. on Lawyers, in Collect. Poems, 18. Old Maynard … Who mumbles all Day, and fumbles all Night.

46

1754.  Shebbeare, Matrimony (1766), II. 239. The old Man … rejoicing to see her return in Good-Humour, fumbled away the Night.

47

1762.  Goldsm., Nash, 180. Impotent posterity would in vain fumble to produce his fellow.

48

  5.  intr. To hesitate in speaking; to speak haltingly or indistinctly; to mumble, mutter.

49

1563.  Homilies, II. Agst. Gluttony (1859), 305. A drunkard … fumbleth and stammereth in his speech.

50

1591.  The Troublesome Raigne of King John, II. (1611), 110.

        O piercing fight, he fumbleth in the mouth,
His speech doth faile.

51

1600.  Holland, Livy, XLII. xxvi. (1609), 1130. Being … found fumbling in their answere [hæsitantibus in responso] they were commaunded to void out of the Counsel-chamber.

52

1611.  [see FAMBLE v.].

53

1647.  Trapp, Comm. Matt. xxvii. 38. His tongue did so fumble and falter in his head.

54

1704.  Cibber, Careless Husb., I. i. How silly a man fumbles for an excuse, when he is a little ashamed of being in love.

55

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. Never lose time fumbling and prating about it.

56

  b.  trans. To speak (words, etc.) indistinctly or hesitatingly. Also with out, up.

57

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 101. He fumbeleth certeyne confounded woordes with hym selfe.

58

1579.  Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 370. M. Heskins fombleth out the matter with a foolish caueat.

59

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 74. I … With stutting stamering at length thus fumbled an answer.

60

1584.  Fenner, Def. Ministers (1587), 121. He blameth vs for fumbling vp those things, which we answered distinctlie inough.

61

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iii. Wks. 1856, I. 127.

                    He, audatious foole,
Dar’d kisse her hand, wisht her soft rest, lov’d bride;
She fumbled out, thanks good, and so she dide.

62

1749.  Chesterf., Lett. (1792), II. ccxiii. 319. As soon as I had fumbled out this answer.

63

  Hence Fumbled ppl. a. Also Fumble sb., a piece of fumbling, a bungling attempt at something; spec. in ball games, a clumsy handling of the ball; † also, confused utterance, mumbling.

64

1647.  Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, 84. The world’s a well strung fidle, mans tongue the quill, That fills the world with fumble for want of skill.

65

c. 1831.  J. Wilson, in Lang, Life & Lett. Lockhart (1897), II. 109. He [Wilson] called Lockhart’s remarks ‘a feeble fumble of falsehood.’

66

1884.  F. D. Millet, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 134/1. The newspapers grew sticky, fumbled, and worn at the hands of the frequent readers.

67

1895.  Daily Chron., 17 Jan., 6/4. At the first fumble of a Surrey back, Maturin rushed round.

68