blunder

Definitions

1. 1.To move in an awkward, clumsy manner; to flounder and stumble. I was never distinguished for address, and have often even blundered in making my bow. Goldsmith. Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, And blunders on, and staggers every pace. Dryden. 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.
2. 2.To cause to blunder. [Obs.] "To blunder an adversary." Ditton.
3. 3.To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse. He blunders and confounds all these together. Stillingfleet.
4. 4.Confusion; disturbance. [Obs.]
5. 5.A gross error or mistake, resulting from carelessness, stupidity, or culpable ignorance. An error is a departure or deviation from that which is right or correct; as, an error of the press; an error of judgment. A mistake is the interchange or taking of one thing for another, through haste, inadvertence, etc.; as, a careless mistake. A blunder is a mistake or error of a gross kind. It supposes a person to flounder on in his course, from carelessness, ignorance, or stupidity. A bull is a verbal blunder containing a laughable incongruity of ideas.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "blunder" mean?
• What is another word for "blunder"?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is blunder.

• What is to cause to blunder. [Obs.] "To blunder an adversary." Ditton called?
• What is to do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse. He blunders and confounds all these together. Stillingfleet called?