noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A confusion; a jumble.
2. 2
   A bumblebee.
3. 3
   A Eurasian bittern. Ireland, UK, dialectal

Verb

1. 1
   To act or move in an awkward or confused manner (often clumsily, incompetently, or carelessly). intransitive

   "Spiders build webs and wait for insects to bumble into them."

2. 2
   To boom, as a Eurasian bittern. intransitive
3. 3
   speak haltingly wordnet
4. 4
   To carry out (a task) clumsily, incompetently, or with many careless mistakes; to bungle, to botch. transitive
5. 5
   To buzz or bum. intransitive

Show 4 more definitions

6. 6
   walk unsteadily, tripping repeatedly wordnet
7. 7
   To speak in a rambling, incoherent, or indistinct manner, especially at tedious length. intransitive
8. 8
   make a mess of, destroy or ruin wordnet
9. 9
   To grumble at; to blame. obsolete, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

botchbuzzstumbleaccuseball upbe all thumbs

Antonyms

All antonyms

exculpate

Example

More examples

"Spiders build webs and wait for insects to bumble into them."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeia. Compare bungle, jumble, and fumble.

Etymology 2

* Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum + -le. * Noun: From the verb.

Related phrases

bumble alongbumble puppybumble-beebumble bee

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.