blunderer

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blun·der

(blŭn′dər)

A mistake typically caused by ignorance or carelessness.

v. blun·dered, blun·der·ing, blun·ders

v.intr.

1. To make a mistake.

2. To move clumsily or haltingly.

v.tr.

1. To make a mistake in; botch: would-be thieves blundering a break-in.

2. To utter (something) stupidly or thoughtlessly.

[From Middle English blunderen, to go blindly, perhaps from Old Swedish blundra, have one's eyes closed, from Old Norse blunda.]

blun′der·er n.

blun′der·ing·ly adv.

Synonyms: blunder, bumble¹, flounder¹, lumber², lurch¹, stagger, stumble, totter
These verbs mean to move awkwardly or unsteadily: blundered about the dark room; bumbled in the door and knocked over a chair; floundered up the muddy path; an elephant lumbering along a trail; twisted her ankle and lurched home; staggered under the heavy weight; stumbled down the hall in a stupor; tottered across the finish line in exhaustion.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

blunderer - someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence

botcher, bumbler, bungler, fuckup, fumbler, sad sack, stumbler, butcher

incompetent, incompetent person - someone who is not competent to take effective action

blunderer

noun

A clumsy person:

botcher, bungler, dub, foozler.

Slang: screwup.

Idiom: bull in a china shop.

Translations

blunderer

[ˈblʌndərəʳ] N → metepatas mf

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

blunderer

n → Schussel m (inf); (socially) → Elefant m (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

blunderer

[ˈblʌndərəʳ] n → imbranato/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in classic literature ?

'What an impudent blunderer this fellow is,' said Pott, turning from pink to crimson.

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A great uproar was raised, but he was unsuspected; while Dub, an awkward blunderer who was always getting caught, was punished for Buck's misdeed.

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But between unarmed men the battle is to the strong, where the strong is no blunderer, and Arthur must sink under a well-planted blow of Adam's as a steel rod is broken by an iron bar.

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For a blunderer, the souvenir he had evoked was a rather skillfully contrived piece of baseness; for by the remembrance of his own fete he, for the first time, perceived its inferiority compared with that of Fouquet.

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The Bench was nothing to me but an insensible blunderer. The Bar had no more tenderness or poetry in it, than the bar of a public-house.

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She had an exquisite tact and insight in relation to all points of manners; but the people she lived among were blunderers and busybodies.

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He has repeatedly shown himself to be a blunderer, so how can he possibly do a good job of running this country?

Fish and another foul from Boris; YOUR VOICE

If slippery Boris Johnson thinks he's the answer then the Tory twister's asking what's best for a blunderer who committed a string of gaffes in his two years as Foreign Secretary, rather than what's best for the country.

Time to end this shambles with an election; I, like you, grasped it would be far from an easy separation but I never imagined the farce that would unfold over the next three years

Based on the novel The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith - the woman who also gave us Strangers On A Train and The Talented Mr Ripley - this twisty 1960s-set thriller stars the underrated Patrick Wilson as unhappily married architect Walter, who writes crime fiction in his spare time.

MOVIE WATCH

There he was duly reminded of his status as the most loathed person around the table and his position as blunderer abroad.

Ambition is still burning beneath Boris' buffoonery

Khanna continued: "Napoleon once said worse than a crime is a blunder, and Salman strikes me as a blunderer."