fumble

Without looking at it, he fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

As she fumbled for her wallet I notice a remote control for a television set in her purse.

The woman stammered an apology as she fumbled with the phone, trying to turn it off.

Betty fumbled again in her purse, this time pulling out a handful of old wrinkled pictures along with a tin of chocolate chip cookies.

He fumbled in one of his pockets, and pulled from it a scrap of paper and a bit of red pencil filched from some carpenter.

"How did you get here? " she asked as she fumbled in her pocket for her keys.

He fumbled in his pocket, and pulled out a gourd with which he had provided himself.

While she was speaking, he fumbled in his waistcoat, drew out his purse and opened it.

She fumbled in the water, found a stone the size of her fist, pulled it from the mud.

The Snitch. His nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch at his neck and he pulled it out.

Beginning that fumbled even once sewed him on the training mat, half of the day could not say a few words.

She opened her cash box and fumbled around for a bit, and then handed me a small stack of coins.

Even the mighty China, the only country with a smidgen of leverage, has fumbled for a coherent strategy.

The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend.

She fumbled about in her handbag for her passport.

The man, without making any reply, fumbled in his pocket, and Thenardier beheld the pocket-book of bank-bills make its appearance once more.

Brazil keeper Helton dropped a clanger as he fumbled Arjen Robben's shot that let Chelsea back into the last-16 second-leg clash.

Chief Justice John Roberts to administrating the oath because last time, as you well know, he fumbled the words, this time he nailed it.

He puttered to her car and fumbled for her car door.

He fumbled with his notes and began to speak .

She opened a drawer and fumbled among its contents for a long time, so long that my hopes began to falter .

Tyrion fumbled back into his clothes again and groped his way to the stair.

Jerry was already unhappy because he fumbled the ball, but his teammates kept rubbing it in.

I cannot believe we fumbled the ball .

He hesitated, fumbled for the right words, then with a new immediacy in his voice, blurted out.

She fumbled in the dark for the light switch.

Suddenly he remembered his corpse controller, and his hand fumbled under water to make sure it was still intact.

The sunburnt man, evidently struck with the concentration of Dora's gaze, bent down and fumbled with his boot laces.

While trying not to drop the books, I fumbled in my purse and pulled out a one-dollar bill.

The old man fumbled with the key in the dark.

Jean Valjean fumbled in his fob and pulled out a five-franc piece.

The teacher fumbled with his notes and began to speak.

The answer is through a combination of political expediency, inept tactics and fumbled diplomacy.

Rem activated the power pack and fumbled at the thick olive-drab cable that connected it to the blunt, heavy Owens gun, opening fire.

Stumbling through the smoke, the pilot emerged from the forward compartment, fumbled for the handgun at his belt.

He won't say it outright, but it's clear to me, and to many of his former colleagues, that the Army fumbled badly in letting him go.

In the third race of the season , in Bahrain , McLaren "fumbled the ball " , says Neale .

We tried to kill the clock, but we fumbled the ball.

For Europe, agreeing to Kyoto's 2012 targets was the easy part, but the Continent has fumbled in managing the treaty's cap-and-trade system.

John McCain, Mr Obama's Republican rival, was widely judged to have fumbled his response to the crisis.

He fumbled for his keys, dropped them on the pavement, picked them up, dropped them again, and hurried to the shop door.

SAP was already under pressure from the recession and a fumbled product launch.

Mr McCain, in contrast, fumbled when he mishandled his response to the economic turmoil of the past few weeks.

The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter.

Unable to speak, I nodded and fumbled my way inside.

he fumbled in his pocket , pulling out the crushed type sheets . - foot and mouth.

The baseball hitter fumbled his attempt to catch it.

"Documents, " he called out, and I fumbled through my things for my archival pass.

But it fumbled the transition to smaller machines in the personal-computer era, and the throne was usurped by Microsoft.

I was careful to at tempt nothing in the lace chamber, but fumbled their goods pretty much to spend time.

It fumbled with the straps on Hitoshi's pack and started rummaging through the contents.

He fumbled the ball and then dropped it.

He fumbled for the knob and entered a lighted room, where sat his sister and Bernard Higginbotham.

My gnarled fingers fumbled as I tried to spring the latch.

She fumbled in her purse for the keys.

Some of the old men fumbled with their red arm bands, which called for world-wide solidarity.

He let another customer through while he fumbled in his pocket for money.

"Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do? " Jobs reportedly asked the MobileMe team after the fumbled launch.

As Mr Lipmann points out, this is not the first time that policymakers worrying about metal supplies have fumbled their response.

My fingers fumbled , grasped and held the windowsill tightly.

I took out my walled and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family.

I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family.

'Arg! ' I gasped as I fumbled for the brake.

With seeming awkwardness he fumbled long with the bow.

Aghast at losing a contact, I fumbled in my pocket for his card.

Rosicky fumbled under his apron and found his pants pocket.

I fumbled a little gap of time past of their own.

He fumbled in his pocket for the key.

Wang Lung fumbled in his girdle.

They fumbled around in total darkness.

The teacher fumbled for the right word to answer the question.

He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on.

The cricketer fumbled the catch.

The drunken man fumbled with his key.

Of course, she didn't want him to know that, so fumbled with the phone again.

the candle going out , that man fumbled in his pocket , expecting to find a match.

The calf fumbled for its mother's udder for milk.

The lights went out, so we fumbled about to find candles.

He fumbled after a correct outlook on life.

The actor fumbled his lines.

He fumbled the one slender chance we had.

She fumbled about in her handbag for a pen.

She fumbled about in her handbag for a pen to write a memorandum.

He picked her up and carefully set her on the desk, then fumbled in the drawer for an inkpot.

"Which one would you like? " I fumbled.

In my fumbled excitement, I misdialed my brother's phone number three times.

he fumbled about in his pockets for the ticket

"Fumbled the receiver into its cradle" (Howard Kaplan)

And you fumbled with my hands

I fumbled in my pocket for change