fumbler, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fumbler n.

1. an impotent man, esp. a husband.

1549		T. Chaloner (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 42: [O]lde men [...] beyng bothe fumblers, dotardes, totheles, griselles, bald (or rather to descriue them by Aristophanes termes) Nastie, crokebackt, wrincled, totheshaken, and lame of their best limme (whiche for womanhode I name not).
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden II ii: Why doe we not go then? or what stay we for, can you tell fumbler?
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony V iii: I have been this Goodman Fumblers wife so many years, and he never yet gave me content.
1662		Pepys Diary 22 Mar. n.p.: [He] that is a fumbler; and he and I called brothers.
1675		F. Fane Love in the Dark IV i: Poor impotent broken-belly’d Fumblers.
1680		‘Tell-Troth’ Knavery of Astrology 12: Of late years there’s a neat Invention, called Flogging, invented on purpose to pleasure Old Fumblers, or weak Youngsters: what it is, they may easily learn at Betty B-’s School, or Moorfields.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 61: Dear Laudy [...] and why shouldst dee tink me shush a Fumbler.
1699		N. Ward London Spy X 242: In as little time as a forward Beau may make a Fumbler a Cuckold.
1709		‘Would You Have a Young Virgin’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 209: Do ye fancy a Punk of a Humour free, / That’s kept by a Fumbler of Quality.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 296: He took the Opportunity of obliging the Bride that she might know the Difference between a Fumbler and a Workman.
c.1720		‘State and Ambition’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 229: Jove in his Throne was a Fumbler Tom Farthing.
1724		A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) IV 359: The Fumbler’s Rant. Come carles a’ of famblers ha’[...] Since we have married wives that’s braw, And canna please them when ’tis late.
1747		Garrick Miss in her Teens I i: I know she is courted by some old fumbler.
1768		Bath Chron. 8 Dec. 2: [advert] Curtain Lectures; or, Matrimonial Misery displayed in a Series of interesting Dialogues between Men and their Wives [...] The Old Fumbler, the Miser, the Cot [...] the termagent Jade and the Scold; will find our Book is the Picture of Life.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1797		M. Leeson Memoirs (1995) III 155: A five guinea note, which she used to put in the old fumbler’s pocket.
1802		‘The Fum[b]lers Rant’ Haughs of Crumdel 7: I will tell you of our fate, / Since we have married wives that’s braw, / and cannot please them when ’tis late.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 131: ‘Why my lady [...] should you think me such a fumbler’.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		‘The Fancy’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 7: Do you fancy a punk of a humor free, / That’s kept by a fumbler of quality.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Mar. 3/4: Oh! to please a young woman / ’Tis more than you can, / You are but a fumbler, / Ye silly old man.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 334: Blunder-head, Hunks, Cutthroat, Fumbler, / Jesuit, Lackbrain, Madman, Drone.
1894		Dundee Courier 1 Dec. 3/8: Catherine [...] had a weakness for him, although he was described then as ‘an old fumbler’.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 56: Castrat, m. A eunuch; also of ‘fumblers’.

2. a young lecher.

1678		Dryden Kind Keeper I i: I am acquainted with your Business: you are a kind of Deputy-Fumbler under me.
1699		N. Ward London-Spy VII 160: Neighbouring Lemans [...] lay Conveniently to be squeez’d by the Young Fumblers of the Law.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 85: A torrent of rain [...] half drenched the fumblers ere they could unfurl their patent umbrellas.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 13: Amoureux transi = a man valiant in only in words; ‘a fumbler’: of young men only.

In compounds

fumbler’s hall (n.)

1. a fig. ‘hall’ where impotent men gather.

1675

Fumblers-Hall 5: Come you brave Artists of the Horned trade / [...] / May all-a-row now march to Fumblers-Hall.

2. the vagina.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: Occasionally, the colloquialism acknowledges the functions of the part, as is seen with [...] Fumbler’s Hall (to fumble is seventeenth-century thrimbling).

3. a metaphorical place where impotent men might be confined as punishment for their failings.

1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 3 14–21 June 22: The Masters and Wardens of Fumblers Hall ... in Doo-little Lane. [Ibid.] 23 1–8 Nov. 201: The City knockers are next week to have a Feast of Rams stones at fumblers Hall, where those that cannot get their Wives with Barn, are to wait on them.
1659		Mercurius Democraticus 31 May-7 June 37: [His wife] is also like to dy [sic] but to leave no Heir [...] (he being so long one of the Wardens of Fumblers Hall).
1685–8		‘Cuckolds all a-Row’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) V i 10: A Summons issued out from the Master-Cuckolds and Wardens of Fumblers-Hall, directed to all Henpeckt and Hornified Tradesmen in and about the City of London.
a.1690		[chapbook title] Fumblers Hall, kept And holden in Feeble-Court, at the sign of the Labour-in-vain, in Doelittle-lane.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
c.1720		New Summons to Horn-Fair n.p.: [To] All that are lately made Free Men Of Cuckolds, or Fumblers-Hall.
c.1904		A. Crowley Snowdrops from a Curate’s Garden 31: He was [...] but a worn-out reprobate, a fellow of Fumbler’s Hall, a mere butterfingers at coney-catching!