If you bungle something, you fail to do it properly, because you make mistakes or are clumsy. Two prisoners bungled an escape bid after running either side of a lamp-post while handcuffed. the FBI's bungled attempt to end the 51 day siege. = botch Bungle is also a noun. an appalling administrative bungle. + bungling bun·gling a bungling burglar. to fail to do something properly, because you have made stupid mistakes - used especially in news reports (Perhaps from a language)