bungle
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bungle
- /ˈbʌŋɡ(ə)l/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ʌŋɡəl
Where it comes from
The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is either:
* onomatopoeic in origin (compare bumble (“to act in an inept, clumsy or inexpert manner; to make mistakes”), fumble (“to grope awkwardly in trying to find something; to blunder uncertainly”)); or
* from Old Norse; compare Old Swedish bunga (“to strike”), and dialectal Swedish bangla (“to work ineffectually”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
* German Bengel (“cudgel; rude fellow”)
* Middle High German bungen (“to hammer”)
verb bungles · bungling · bungled
- To incompetently perform (a task); to ruin (something) through incompetent action; to botch up, to bumble. I always had an idea that it would be bungled; but was willing to hope, and am still so. Whatever I can do by money, means, or person, I will venture freely for their freedom; and have so repeated to them (some of the Chiefs here) half an hour ago.
- To act or work incompetently; to fumble. Physis is nothing else but the vegetable World, the Universall comprehension of Spermaticall life dispersed throughout. […] For Physis (as I said) is not the divine Understanding it self, but is as if you should conceive, an Artificers imagination separate from the Artificer, and left alone to work
noun bungles
- A botched or incompetently handled action or situation; a blunder. VVherefore this Religious affection vvhich nature has implanted, and as ſtrongly rooted in Man as the feare of death or the love of vvomen, vvould be the moſt enormous ſlip or bungle ſhe could commit, ſo that ſhe vvould ſo ſhamefully faile in the laſt Act, in this contrivance of the nature of Man, t
