(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.
Malapropism
Definition:
(n.) A grotesque misuse of a word; a word so used.
Example Sentences:
(1) My mum, Olwen, was a bright and talkative woman who loved a gossip and a story, and was given slightly to malapropisms.
(2) Her Mrs Malaprop in Belgrade Theatre's touring production of Sheridan's The Rivals was hailed as "the play's vociferous focal point".
(3) In some patients, the combinative ambiguity or malapropism expresses the fear of reprisal through the transformation into a self-inflicted injury.
(4) The point is malapropisms and mispronunciations are fairly common.