释义 |
▪ I. bungle, v.|ˈbʌŋg(ə)l| Also 6 bongyll, boungle, 7 bungell. [App. onomatopœic; cf. bumble, brangle, boggle v. (Prof. Skeat compares Sw. dial. bangla to work ineffectually (Rietz), and OSw. bunga to strike (Ihre).] 1. trans. To do or make in a clumsy or unskilful manner; formerly often with up, out. Now, usually, To spoil by unskilful workmanship. Cf. botch v.1
1530Palsgr. 627/2 A man may bongyll it up in a senyght. 1570Levins Manip. 189 To Bungle, infabre facere.. 1579G. Harvey Letter-bk. (1884) 59 They were hudlid and..bunglid upp in more haste then good speede. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 52 He either wholly spoils it, or at least bungles out a half work. 1791Scott Let. in Lockhart (1839) I. 247 Never was an affair more completely bungled. 1845E. Holmes Mozart 260 The oratorio..some may expect to be patched or bungled. 2. intr. To work or act unskilfully or clumsily; to blunder.
1549Olde Erasm. Par. Ephes. Prol., Bunglyng at the thyng that is ferre aboue my capacitie. 1647H. More Song of Soul Notes 139/2 Physis or Nature is sometimes puzzeld and bungells in ill disposed matter. 1791–1824D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1859) II. 498 Shenstone..found that his engraver..had sadly bungled with the poet's ideal. 1862Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. IV. iv. §29. 118 Very likely Luther bungled in his arguments. ▪ II. ˈbungle, n. [f. prec. vb.] A clumsy or unskilful piece of work; a botch, blunder, muddle. Hence bungle-headed a.
1656H. More Antid. Atheism (1662) 84 The most enormous slip or bungle she could commit. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 150 Those ἁµαρτήµατα (as Aristotle calls them) those Errors and Bungles. 1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 231 The second figure commenced, and I made a sad bungle..for I had never danced a cotillon. 1865Leeds Mercury 15 Apr., This dear old bungle-headed commercial man. |