How to Use mumble in a Sentence

mumble

verb
  • He mumbled something and then left.
  • I can't understand you when you mumble.
  • He mumbled “Goodbye” and then left.
  • The man mumbled a few words and snatched the car keys out of the woman's hands, the report says.
    Courtney Astolfi, cleveland.com, 30 Oct. 2017
  • And the child’s mother mumbled about me being too old to play with the boys on the block now.
    Elizabeth Wellington, Philly.com, 23 Oct. 2017
  • The report said the male was mumbling and not making sense.
    Bob Dohr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 Jan. 2018
  • Rada and La Cou head the pack; the men are swaying along arm in arm, mumbling a tune.
    Jason Motlagh, Marie Claire, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Down the street, a wild-eyed man sunk into a rolling chair on the sidewalk, shrieking and mumbling.
    Emily Alpert Reyes, latimes.com, 22 June 2018
  • In the scene, Terry mumbles the same words over and over again: breathe, sunflower, rainbow, 450, three to the right, four to the left.
    Tamara Fuentes, Seventeen, 25 Sep. 2019
  • Biden sometimes mumbled, got tongue-tied or lost his train of thought.
    Matt Hubbard, Baltimore Sun, 30 June 2024
  • The driver, who mumbled her words and smelled like booze, acted drunk.
    John Benson, cleveland, 18 Dec. 2019
  • In my younger days, maybe someone would mumble a reply, avert their eyes and move on.
    Peter Jensen, Baltimore Sun, 28 Feb. 2024
  • But many of the women flinched when asked to speak, mumbling out their own names and positions.
    Tricia Taormina, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Ana mumbling something about the font size for Boyce Fox’s book cover.
    Peggy Truong, Cosmopolitan, 9 Feb. 2018
  • Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon.
    Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 24 Aug. 2023
  • Dozens of good jokes would get thrown out just because one of them had mumbled the line through a mouthful of bacon.
    Time, 21 Aug. 2023
  • The man held a coat draped over his head and mumbled about spare change before sitting on a curb nearby.
    Christina Goldbaum, New York Times, 19 May 2024
  • When the question of ethics arose, the panelists mumbled uncomfortably and passed the mike.
    Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Omar shrugged his shoulders, mumbling under his breath, and stood by her head.
    Jared Lemus, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2024
  • The engine note tends to mumble under load but pipes down while cruising.
    Dan Edmunds, Car and Driver, 31 May 2023
  • Kodak Black ain’t just mumble rap talking about drugs and killing.
    Michael Saponara, Billboard, 12 June 2024
  • A lot of trap and mumble rap — their version of punk, which I’m not supposed to understand, let alone like.
    Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2023
  • Shabby hair, jacket big enough to swim in, one of those faces, a voice that mumbles a low tobacco rasp.
    Ew Staff, EW.com, 17 Mar. 2023
  • For a moment, the only sounds were the hurried prayers of the civil servants mumbling under their breath.
    Rukmini Callimachi, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • John Waters mumbled something — an apology, maybe — and the two of them walked away.
    Peter Risafi, New York Times, 18 June 2018
  • Since then he's been a fixture at the makeshift memorial, crying on his knees, staring at the cross, mumbling things to his wife.
    Dallas News, 17 Aug. 2019
  • When asked for his driver’s license, the man mumbled and looked around slowly, but could not locate the license.
    cleveland.com, 13 Sep. 2019
  • As for Tuesday's tempo, that's what irked Lue the most, causing him to sit down in his chair for the postgame press conference and mumble about how bad the team played.
    Joe Vardon, cleveland.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Imagine if getting a divorce only took having to mumble (or email or text) three words to your wife and the whole thing would be over.
    Matthew Diebel, USA TODAY, 11 May 2017
  • Once he was seated, my grandfather motioned to the remote control, mumbling that there was a show about to start.
    Ayşegül Savaş, The New Yorker, 14 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mumble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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