blunder

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: blun=der

CIDE DICTIONARY

blunder, v. i. [OE. blunderen, blondren, to stir, confuse, blunder; perh. allied to blend to mix, to confound by mixture.].

•  To make a gross error or mistake; as, to blunder in writing or preparing a medical prescription.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]
•  To move in an awkward, clumsy manner; to flounder and stumble.  [1913 Webster]

  "I was never distinguished for address, and have often even blundered in making my bow."  [1913 Webster]

  "Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place,
  And blunders on, and staggers every pace."  [1913 Webster]

To blunder on. (a) To continue blundering. (b) To find or reach as if by an accident involving more or less stupidity, -- applied to something desirable; as, to blunder on a useful discovery.

blunder, v. t. 

•  To cause to blunder.  Ditton.  [1913 Webster]
•  To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse.  [1913 Webster]

  "He blunders and confounds all these together."  [1913 Webster]

blunder, n. 

•  Confusion; disturbance.  [1913 Webster]
•  A gross error or mistake, resulting from carelessness, stupidity, or culpable ignorance.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Blunder, Error, Mistake, Bull.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

blunder, n. & v.
--n. a clumsy or foolish mistake, esp. an important one.
--v.
1 intr. make a blunder; act clumsily or ineptly.
2 tr. deal incompetently with; mismanage.
3 intr. move about blindly or clumsily; stumble.

Derivative

blunderer n. blunderingly adv.

Etymology

ME prob. f. Scand.: cf. MSw blundra shut the eyes

THESAURUS

blunder

absurdity, act of folly, bad job, be all thumbs, bevue, blooper, blow, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, bobble, boggle, bollix, bonehead play, boner, boo-boo, botch, bull, bumble, bungle, butcher, careen, career, clumsy performance, commit a gaffe, dumb trick, err, error, etourderie, falter, faux pas, flounce, flounder, flub, fluff, folly, foozle, fumble, gaffe, gaucherie, goof, goof up, gum up, hash, howler, imprudence, indiscretion, labor, lapse, louse up, lumber, lurch, make a blunder, make a misstep, mar, mess, miscue, miss, miss the mark, misspeak, mistake, muddle, muff, murder, off day, pitch, pitch and plunge, play havoc with, plunge, reel, rock, roll, sad work, screw up, screw-up, seethe, slip, slip up, snapper, solecism, sottise, spoil, stagger, struggle, stumble, stupid thing, stupidity, sway, swing, thrash about, toss, toss and tumble, toss and turn, totter, trip, tumble, unwise step, wallop, wallow, welter

ROGET THESAURUS

blunder

Unskillfulness

N unskillfulness, want of skill, incompetence, incompentency, inability, infelicity, indexterity, inexperience, disqualification, unproficiency, quackery, folly, stupidity indiscretion, thoughtlessness, sabotage, mismanagement, misconduct, impolicy, maladministration, misrule, misgovernment, misapplication, misdirection, misfeasance, petticoat government, absence of rule, rule of thumb, bungling, failure, screw loose: too many cooks, blunder, etourderie gaucherie, act of folly, balourdise, botch, botchery, bad job, sad work, sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild- goose chase, bungler, fool, unskillful, inexpert, bungling, awkward, clumsy, unhandy, lubberly, gauche, maladroit, left-handed, heavy-handed, slovenly, slatternly, gawky, adrift, at fault, inapt, unapt, inhabile, untractable, unteachable, giddy, inconsiderate, stupid inactive, incompetent, unqualified, disqualified, ill-qualified, unfit, quackish, raw, green, inexperienced, rusty, out of practice, unaccustomed, unused, untrained &c, uninitiated, unconversant, shiftless, unstatesmanlike, unadvised, ill-advised, misadvised, ill-devised, ill-imagined, ill-judged, ill-contrived, ill-conducted, unguided, misguided, misconducted, foolish, wild, infelicitous, penny wise and pound foolish, one's fingers being all thumbs, the right hand forgets its cunning, il se noyerait dans une goutte d'eau, incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim, out of the frying pan into the fire, non omnia possumus omnes.

VB be unskillful, not see an inch beyond one's nose, blunder, bungle, boggle, fumble, botch, bitch, flounder, stumble, trip, hobble, put one's foot in it, make a mess of, make hash of, make sad work of, overshoot the mark, play tricks with, play Puck, mismanage, misconduct, misdirect, misapply, missend, stultify oneself, make a fool of oneself, commit oneself, act foolishly, play the fool, put oneself out of court, lose control, lose control of oneself, lose one's head, lose one's cunning, begin at the wrong end, do things by halves, make two bites of a cherry, play at cross purposes, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, put the cart before the horse, lock the stable door when the horse is stolen, not know what one is about, not know one's own interest, not know on which side one's bread is buttered, stand in one's own light, quarrel with one's bread and butter, throw a stone in one's own garden, kill the goose which lays the golden eggs, pay dear for one's whistle, cut one's own throat, bum one's fingers, knock one's head against a stone wall, beat one's head against a stone wall, fall into a trap, catch a Tartar, bring the house about one's ears, have too many eggs in one basket (imprudent), have too many irons in the fire, mistake, take the shadow for the substance, bark up the wrong tree, be in the wrong box, aim at a pigeon and kill a crow, take the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, get the dirty end of the stick, put the saddle on the wrong horse, put a square peg into a round hole, put new wine into old bottles, cut blocks with a razor, hold a farthing candle to the sun, fight with a shadow, grasp at a shadow, catch at straws, lean on a broken reed, reckon without one's host, pursue a wild goose chase, go on a fool's goose chase, sleeveless errand, go further and fare worse, lose one's way, miss one's way, fail.

Failure

N failure, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment, dead failure, successlessness, abortion, miscarriage, brutum fulmen, labor in vain, no go, inefficacy, inefficaciousness, vain attempt, ineffectual attempt, abortive attempt, abortive efforts, flash in the pan, lame and impotent conclusion, frustration, slip 'twixt cup and lip, blunder, fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall, false step, wrong step, faux pas, titubation, b_evue, faute, lurch, botchery, scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown, flunk, mishap, split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion, repulse, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture, beating, drubbing, quietus, nonsuit, subjugation, checkmate, stalemate, fool's mate, fall, downfall, ruin, perdition, wreck, deathblow, bankruptcy, losing game, affaire flamb_ee, victim, bankrupt, flunker, flunky, unsuccessful, successless, failing, tripping, at fault, unfortunate, abortive, addle, stillborn, fruitless, bootless, ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory, inefficient, insufficient, unavailing, of no effect, aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited, foiled, defeated, struck down, borne down, broken down, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, all up with, ploughed, plowed, plucked, lost, undone, ruined, broken, bankrupt, played out, done up, done for, dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head, destroyed, frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed, thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends, unhorsed, in a sorry plight, hard hit, stultified, befooled, dished, hoist on one's own petard, victimized, sacrificed, wide of the mark, out of one's reckoning, left in the lurch, thrown away, unattained, uncompleted, unsuccessfully, to little or no purpose, in vain, re infecta, the bubble has burst, the jig is up, the game is up, all is lost, the devil to pay, parturiunt montes, dies infaustus, tout est perdu hors l'honneur.

VB fail, be unsuccessful, not succeed, make vain efforts, do in vain, labor in vain, toil in vain, flunk, lose one's labor, take nothing by one's motion, bring to naught, make nothing of, wash a blackamoor white, roll the stones of Sisyphus, do by halves, lose ground, fall short of, miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays, slip, trip, stumble, make a slip, blunder, make a mess of, make a botch of, bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, limp, halt, hobble, titubate, fall, tumble, lose one's balance, fall to the ground, fall between two stools, flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock, beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall, break one's back, break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one, get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape, come to grief, go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot, lick the dust, bite the dust, be defeated, have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose, fall a prey to, succumb, not have a leg to stand on, come to nothing, end in smoke, flat out, fall to the ground, fall through, fall dead, fall stillborn, fall flat, slip through one's fingers, hang fire, miss fire, flash in the pan, collapse, topple down, go to wrack and ruin, go amiss, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack, go on ill, come off ill, turn out ill, work ill, take a wrong term, take an ugly term, take an ugly turn, take a turn for the worse, be all over with, be all up with, explode, dash one's hopes, defeat the purpose, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, go from the frying pan into the fire.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.

VB be erroneous, cause error, mislead, misguide, lead astray, lead into error, beguile, misinform, delude, give a false impression, give a false idea, falsify, misstate, deceive, lie, err, be in error, be mistaken, be deceived, mistake, receive a false impression, deceive oneself, fall into error, lie under error, labor under an error, be in the wrong, blunder, misapprehend, misconceive, misunderstand, misreckon, miscount, miscalculate, play at cross purposes, be at cross purposes, trip, stumble, lose oneself, go astray, fail, be in the wrong box, take the wrong sow by the ear, put the saddle on the wrong horse, reckon without one's host, take the shadow for the substance, dream.

Absurdity

N absurdity, absurdness, imbecility alogy, nonsense, utter nonsense, paradox, inconsistency, stultiloquy, stultiloquence, nugacity, blunder, muddle, bull, Irishism, Hibernicism, slipslop, anticlimax, bathos, sophism, farce, galimathias, amphigouri, rhapsody, farrago, betise, extravagance, romance, sciamachy, sell, pun, verbal quibble, macaronic, jargon, fustian, twaddle, gibberish, exaggeration, moonshine, stuff, mare's nest, quibble, self- delusion, vagary, tomfoolery, poppycock, mummery, monkey trick, boutade, escapade, absurd, nonsensical, preposterous, egregious, senseless, inconsistent, ridiculous, extravagant, quibbling, self-annulling, self- contradictory, macaronic, punning, foolish sophistical, unmeaning, without rhyme or reason, fantastic, Int, fiddlededee!, pish!, pho!, in the name of the Prophet--figs!, credat Judaeus Apella, tell it to the marines.