famble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæmbəl/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmbəl

Etymology 1

Possibly related to fumble.

Noun

famble (plural fambles)

1. (obsolete, slang) A hand.
   • c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bvsh”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:

     We clap our fambles.

   • 1951, Georgette Heyer, The Quiet Gentleman:

     A Bow Street Runner says "I knew a cove as talked the way you do – leastways, in the way of business I knew him! In fact, you remind me of him very strong […] He was on the dub-lay, and very clever with his fambles. He ended up in the Whit, o’ course."

   • 1999, Nancy Kress, Yanked!, page 47:

     I'm keeping my fambles clean on this trip.

Etymology 2

From Middle English falmelen.

Verb

famble (third-person singular simple present fambles, present participle fambling, simple past and past participle fambled)

1. (obsolete) To stammer.
   • 1833, Horace Smith, Gale Middleton: A Story of the Present Day - Volume 1, page 149:

     “Stow that, Jem, if you please, ” said Gemman Joe, as he had been called by his comrade.— "Toggery is too apt to tell tales. I won't have a rag of it fambled. It's a prime job for us already, for we are to touch. five-and-twenty guineas a-piece, you know, for doing his business, and we don't get such a grab as that every day."

   • 1981, Alexander Theroux, Darconville's Cat, page 310:

     Destiny, it might be said, simply opened its mouth to speak and, for reasons no one really knew, fambled to a halt.

   • 2017, Mark Sampson, The Slip:

     “You know, I realized,” she began, her eyes sparkling in the pub's dimness, “that I didn't even catch your name at the Oxford Union the other night.” “Um, Sharpe,” I fambled. “Philip.”

See also

• fimble-famble (probably etymologically related to one of the above)

Anagrams

• flambe, flambé

Krio

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Noun

famble

1. Alternative form of fambul
   • 1995, Masée Touré, Bai Bureh's Countrymen, →ISBN, page 12:

     Pa Gasama spoke in Krio, a language that was common to all; 'Famble den who na kushe oh'.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)