(v. i.) To make a gross error or mistake; as, to blunder in writing or preparing a medical prescription.
(v. i.) To move in an awkward, clumsy manner; to flounder and stumble.
(v. t.) To cause to blunder.
(v. t.) To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse.
(n.) Confusion; disturbance.
(n.) A gross error or mistake, resulting from carelessness, stupidity, or culpable ignorance.
Example Sentences:
(1) The score should have been tied at 2-2 and the natural German retort that one of Geoff Hurst's goals in the 1966 World Cup was imaginary hardly makes the blunder of officials more palatable in Bloemfontein.
(2) The catalogue of blunders produced an angry response from congressmen in both parties who questioned the competence of Pierson, who was herself brought in to clean up the elite unit after earlier scandals in which drunken officers were found passed out during a presidential trip to Amsterdam and visiting prostitutes in Colombia.
(3) But it is not clear whether that will be enough to save McChrystal's job after what is the latest of a series of political blunders.
(4) Anthony King is professor of government at Essex University and co-author with Ivor Crewe of The Blunders of Our Governments, to be published next week
(5) From millions of BBC words, blunders and scandals are relatively few.
(6) That should mean, among other changes from Monday’s win at Hull , that Danny Welbeck returns up front even if Olivier Giroud relocated the net after a couple of months blundering about in the dark.
(7) But after David de Gea's blunder allowed Phil Bardsley's 119th-minute shot to slip in, Javier Hernández grabbed a lifeline with a strike seconds later to take the tie into the shootout.
(8) Blunders by hospital staff which leave newborn babies brain-damaged in the first few days of their lives are set to cost the NHS more than £235m, official figures reveal.
(9) A horrendous blunder by Mertesacker presents the ball to Aluko, who goes around Fabianksi.
(10) Results indicated an effect of sex identification; the male blunderer was derogated most by male subjects (n = 34) and the female most by female subjects (n = 34).
(11) The Obama administration on Monday approved Shell’s plan to resume drilling for oil and gas in the treacherous and fragile waters off the coast of Alaska , three years after the Anglo-Dutch oil giant was forced to suspend operations following a series of potentially dangerous blunders.
(12) They've conceded only one goal due to a goalie blunder (against admittedly limited opposition) and not lost.
(13) "In a post-Fukushima environment where nuclear planning is being halted in Germany and Japan it seems bizarre that the (UK) government is blundering ahead with disposing of nuclear waste in the most absurdly inappropriate place," she said.
(14) The plot of Emma turns on Frank Churchill's "blunder" in mentioning the likelihood of Mr Perry, the local apothecary, "setting up his carriage".
(15) A brief inquest a year later did not expose the hospital's blunder.
(16) The sport’s global governing body has admitted that Joubert blundered by awarding the Wallabies the last-gasp penalty that Bernard Foley kicked to seize a 35-34 victory at Twickenham on Sunday, robbing Scotland of a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
(17) Inevitably the commentators (and so far in my researches, they were all women) pondered on Lawson's motivation, and whether this decision was a style blunder, a "betrayal of her own brand", or a defiant and admirable insistence on privacy for her body.
(18) It's hard to watch these executions and not realise that these blunders are bound to happen,” he said.
(19) In a front-page comment piece, Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz, wrote: "Instead of hushing up the blunder, [gag orders] merely shine a spotlight on it.
(20) He’s not in power yet, so he still gets to blunder around lobbing out daft policies willy-nilly in the hope that one of them will scan.
Gaffe
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) Dedicate it to the off-the-cuff remark – the gaffe, even – which averts a war.
(2) Every time he opened his mouth he created another gaffe," he said.
(3) This is, admittedly, a difficult area for David Cameron, who, when questioned by David Letterman on US TV in 2012, was unable to say that Magna Carta simply meant great charter, but perhaps we should overlook this fairly amazing gaffe (for an Oxford-educated prime minister) and encourage him to inaugurate a national movement of political renewal with the charter as the context and inspiration.
(4) Mitt Romney's historic gaffe caught on video – published, with great timing, by the left-leaning Mother Jones magazine – in which he said that his campaign was writing off 47% of American voters since they "depended on government" handouts, was committed in an equally significant manner, as he delivered the remarks to a closed group of potential major donors in Florida.
(5) There is strikingly little support for the Republican contender whose gaffe-prone visit to Europe in July won him few friends and who regularly turns European welfarism and "entitlement societies" into points of mockery in his campaign speeches.
(6) Following controversy over the candidate's comments on the preparedness of London to host the Olympic Games, his aides will be anxious to avoid further gaffes.
(7) Democrats are planning to highlight what they see as the Republican party’s unpalatable views on immigration over the weekend, sending “trackers” to monitor the event in search of further gaffes from potential candidates.
(8) The comedy, in which she stars as gaffe-prone vice-president Selina Meyer, has been seen as a personal triumph for Louis-Dreyfus, as well as a stateside vindication for the comic method of its creator, Armando Iannucci .
(9) Roe worried about “all these gaffes” that Biden made as well as whether the 72-year-old had the necessary energy to serve in the Oval Office.
(10) Photograph: Barcroft Media Newsnight's new editor, former Guardian deputy editor Ian Katz, also has form with the comic sidestep after his Twitter "snoring, boring" gaffe about Rachel Reeves.
(11) Campaigning before the June election Demirtaş had been full of mischief, needling Erdoğan, making fun of the AKP’s gaffes.
(12) Gaffes are a feature of politicians and the electoral process, not a bug.
(13) In one high-profile gaffe, the expertise of one member of Macierewicz’s commission was revealed to have been based upon experience of constructing model aircraft, sitting in a fighter jet’s cockpit during an air show, and observing plane wings while looking out of a passenger window.
(14) Johnson is the master-builder of that image, deflecting every lie, every gaffe, dishonesty and U-turn with some self-deprecating metaphor: calling his feigned indecision “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley” was worth a world of worthy platitudes.
(15) You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” Sean Spicer apologizes for 'even Hitler didn't use chemical weapons' gaffe Read more Spicer’s assertion during the Jewish holiday of Passover provoked instant outrage on social media and from some Holocaust memorial groups, who accused him of minimising Hitler’s crimes.
(16) This week the rapper said his gaffe at the MTV Video Music awards in 2009 was "bigger ... than the Bush moment".
(17) Clinton, while trotting out her plan on college affordability , has been robust in her attacks on Republican candidates of late – speaking out against gaffes on women’s reproductive rights from Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.
(18) The editor's hope is that there will be "a story", perhaps a new policy initiative but, better still, a "gaffe".
(19) If it isn’t frontbench gaffes, it’s the perceived lack of commitment to the armed forces or armed police officers distracting from government blunders.
(20) Following a gaffe-strewn visit to Britain , where he queried the Olympic host's fitness to stage the Games, and after stirring controversy in Israel by calling Jerusalem the Israeli capital and seeming to back unilateral Israeli strikes against Iran , the Republican White House contender arrived on Monday in Poland, where he is to deliver a setpiece speech on democracy and freedom.