Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb fumble

5 senses of fumble

Sense 1
grope, fumble -- (feel about uncertainly or blindly; "She groped for her glasses in the darkness of the bedroom")
       => search, seek, look for -- (try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the missing man in the entire county")

Sense 2
fumble, blunder -- (make one's way clumsily or blindly; "He fumbled towards the door")
       => pass, go through, go across -- (go across or through; "We passed the point where the police car had parked"; "A terrible thought went through his mind")

Sense 3
fumble -- (handle clumsily)
       => handle, palm -- (touch, lift, or hold with the hands; "Don't handle the merchandise")

Sense 4
botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up -- (make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement")
       => fail, go wrong, miscarry -- (be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably")

Sense 5
fumble -- (drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder; "fumble a grounder")
       => play -- (participate in games or sport; "We played hockey all afternoon"; "play cards"; "Pele played for the Brazilian teams in many important matches")

Antonyms of adj fumbling

1 sense of fumbling

Sense 1
bungling, clumsy, fumbling, incompetent -- (showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman"; "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf")

INDIRECT (VIA unskilled) -> skilled -- (having or showing or requiring special skill; "only the most skilled gymnasts make an Olympic team"; "a skilled surgeon has many years of training and experience"; "a skilled reconstruction of her damaged elbow"; "a skilled trade")

Similarity of adj fumbling

1 sense of fumbling

Sense 1
bungling, clumsy, fumbling, incompetent -- (showing lack of skill or aptitude; "a bungling workman"; "did a clumsy job"; "his fumbling attempt to put up a shelf")
       => unskilled (vs. skilled) -- (not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency; "unskilled in the art of rhetoric"; "an enthusiastic but unskillful mountain climber"; "unskilled labor"; "workers in unskilled occupations are finding fewer and fewer job opportunities"; "unskilled workmanship")