Other forms: bungled, bungling, bungles
To bungle is to do a job clumsily and get it wrong. Bungle the arrest, a bungled attempt, bungled it badly.
It blames incompetence rather than bad faith, which is why bungled is the kinder word in an inquiry — a bungled operation was meant to work. It is a favourite of headlines. Note that the origin of the word is unknown, which is unusual for a verb so widely used.
1verbbungleTo do a job clumsily and get it wrong.
“The builders bungled the job, and now the roof leaks every time it rains.”
bungle is a botching.
The origin of bungle is unknown. It appears in English in the sixteenth century.
The origin of the verb is unknown; it is either:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire