c1450 (c1405) Mum & Sothsegger (BL Add. 41666) (1936) l. 1028 (MED) The bomelyng of þe bees..Thair noyse and þaire notz at eue and eeke at morowe.

1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie lxiv. 71 Much bumbling among them all [i.e. flies]: there was.

1609 T. Ravenscroft Deuteromelia sig. B2 Wee shall haue good companie, With humbling and bumbling and much melody: When ended was this wedding day the Bee hee tooke his flye away.

1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xiii. 106 Bumling of Bees.

1884 Daily Evening Democrat (Shelbyville, Indiana) 9 Oct. He warned the workingmen in tones as awful as the bumbling of a bee in a jug.

1921 L. Housman Possession in Golden Sovereign (1937) 256 (stage direct.) The gong continues its metallic bumbling.

1995 J. Feather Valentine xiii. 193 Listening to the drowsy bumbling of a bee in the clover-strewn grass at her feet.

1533 T. More Answere Poysened Bk. ii. x. f. cxliii^v Tyndale dyd..make some bumblyng about a colour for the mater.

1872 Farmer's Mag. Mar. 202/1 Can Warwickshire landowners and land-agents after the Irish ‘bumblings’ stand by and see such a disgustingly hateful thing done?

1951 D. Thomas Let. 12 Apr. (1987) 793 Sorry to have missed you my last London visit. What a word visit is for my kind of occasional agitated bumbling in frowsy streets, unkind pubs, deleterious afternoon boozers, snoring cinemas, wet beds!

1952 Ess. in Crit. 2 11 The incongruity between Emma's high-flown sentiments and Charles's pedestrian bumblings.

2013 Toronto Star (Nexis) 25 Oct. s4 A pair of rookie executives whose bumblings would set back both franchises.

1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie lxxi. sig. ¶¶Ffiiii2^v Their [sc. the flies] bumbling buzing.

1776 E. Thompson Syrens ii. 22 Frolic Fairy.., Who rides the humble-bee from flower to flower.., Pleas'd with his bumbling tune.

1878 Rochester (Indiana) Independent 5 June Hear the buzzing of the fly—Bumbling buzz!

1897 B. Lewis Four Men went to War iii. 150 Helmut could hear the bumbling sound coming from a number of tank engines as they ticked over.

1923 J. T. Rogers Once in Red Moon xiv. 66 In the door or on the steps silk hats shining..; bumbling buzz of voices.

1964 N. Amer. Rev. Mar. 79/2 The creak of the black rocker..and the bumbling buzz of moths on the window screens.

a1992 G. Dell Dance unto Lord (2001) 109 They all began to make some kind of humming or bumbling sound in their throats.

1660 S. Fisher Rusticus ad Academicos iii. 192 To seek out their several senses on the Scriptures, many bumbling Volumes, larger then the Bible it self being written.

1729 H. Carey Poems Several Occasions (ed. 3) 207 What should a merry, airy, lively, youthful, blooming Lass, Do with a mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, stumbling, fumbling Ass.

1886 E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew I. ix. 167 The rector's only son, a big bumbling young fellow.

1948 Alice (Texas) Daily Echo 22 Aug. 10/3 Perry Mason unravels a murder..involving a demure young girl, a raging department store tycoon, a bumbling idiot of a policeman, and the customary assortment of weird characters.

1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. No. 24. 40 Every pickpocket has to believe that he is good,..even if he is the most bumbling of operators.

2002 Birmingham Evening Mail (Nexis) 27 Aug. 22 He's a bumbling old fool with irredeemably daft ways.

1922 S. Lewis Babbitt xv. 193 He was enormously busy during the dinner, now bumblingly cheering Paul, now approaching McKelvey.

1946 Washington Post 13 Mar. 10/1 We have always regarded the Communists as bumblingly ineffectual, however zealous.

2000 T. Robbins Fierce Invalids 126 He began—first haltingly, bumblingly, then, gaining silver and fizz, dramatically, almost with heedless relish—to recount the events of the weeks just past.