Obs. Also 4 famelen. [Of obscure origin; the word may originally have had the sense ‘to grope, FUMBLE’; cf. Sw. famla, Da. famle to grope, metathetic form of ON. falma (Icel. fálma), cogn. with OE. folm hand.]
1. intr. To speak imperfectly; to stammer, stutter.
14[?]. in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 224. His tonge shal stameren, oþer famelen.
1611. Cotgr., Beguayer, to famble, fumble, maffle in the mouth.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Famble, to Faulter, or Stammer in Speech.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., He fambles so in his talk.
2. (See quot.)
1877. Peacock, N.W. Linc. Gloss., Fambling, eating without an appetite.
Hence Fambling vbl. sb., Fambling ppl. a.
1611. Cotgr., Begayement, a fambling or maffling in the mouth. Ibid., Begué … fambling, fumbling, maffling in the mouth.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xxvi. 216.
