Library / English Dictionary

BLUNDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An embarrassing mistake

Synonyms:

bloomer; blooper; blunder; boner; boo-boo; botch; bungle; flub; foul-up; fuckup; pratfall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("blunder" is a kind of...):

error; fault; mistake (a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blunder"):

bobble (the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball)

snafu (an acronym often used by soldiers in World War II: situation normal all fucked up)

spectacle (a blunder that makes you look ridiculous; used in the phrase 'make a spectacle of' yourself)

bull (a serious and ludicrous blunder)

fumble; muff ((sports) dropping the ball)

fluff (a blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines))

faux pas; gaffe; gaucherie; slip; solecism (a socially awkward or tactless act)

howler (a glaring blunder)

clanger (a conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate)

misstep; stumble; trip; trip-up (an unintentional but embarrassing blunder)

Derivation:

blunder (commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Utter impulsively

Example:

He blundered his stupid ideas

Synonyms:

blunder; blunder out; blurt; blurt out; ejaculate

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "blunder" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make one's way clumsily or blindly

Example:

He fumbled towards the door

Synonyms:

blunder; fumble

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "blunder" is one way to...):

pass (go across or through)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake

Example:

I blundered during the job interview

Synonyms:

blunder; boob; drop the ball; goof; sin

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "blunder" is one way to...):

breach; break; go against; infract; offend; transgress; violate (act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

blunder (an embarrassing mistake)

blunderer (someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The remains scattered about were fragments of the victims, which had been cut away in order to clear the stake for the next who might blunder in.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am a very matter-of-fact, plain-spoken being, and may blunder on the borders of a repartee for half an hour together without striking it out.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So seldom that any negligence or blunder appears!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Anne smiled, and let it pass. It was too pleasing a blunder for a reproach.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Rochester, allow me to disown my first answer: I intended no pointed repartee: it was only a blunder.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Not aware of their being in town, however, I blundered on Sir John, I believe, the first day of his coming, and the day after I had called at Mrs. Jennings's.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Mates, says he, there's two of them alone there; one's the old cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this; the other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming high over the traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bustards popped up from among the bracken, and blundered away in their clumsy fashion, half running, half flying, with strident cry and whirr of wings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now, amidst roars of laughter from the crowd and a shower of blows from the beaters-out, they dived madly back, with the ungainly haste of frightened sheep blundering through a gap in their hurdles.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Born to be a hunter of meat (though he did not know it), he blundered upon meat just outside his own cave-door on his first foray into the world.

(White Fang, by Jack London)