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.
  • My speech was slurred and mumbled.
    — Tom Ward, Outside, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Vic mumbled, coughing sleep from his throat.
    — Bryan Washington, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Biden sometimes mumbled, got tongue-tied or lost his train of thought.
    — Matt Hubbard, Baltimore Sun, 30 June 2024
  • When mumbling their prayers over rosary beads, their tongues turned thick and foreign.
    — Victor Lodato, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
  • The driver, who mumbled her words and smelled like booze, acted drunk.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Omar shrugged his shoulders, mumbling under his breath, and stood by her head.
    — Jared Lemus, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2024
  • In my younger days, maybe someone would mumble a reply, avert their eyes and move on.
    — Peter Jensen, Baltimore Sun, 28 Feb. 2024
  • The mumbling back and forth in the cage after the fight was the true highlight of the fight.
    — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 17 May 2026
  • Mustafa said as the man trotted down the stairs, mumbling something—a prayer, a curse.
    — Literary Hub, 2 Feb. 2026
  • 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
  • Coaches were supposed to mumble clichés in front of the media and move on.
    — Zak Keefer, The Athletic, 15 Jan. 2025
  • The engine note tends to mumble under load but pipes down while cruising.
    — Dan Edmunds, Car and Driver, 31 May 2023
  • Peters started to mumble, sway and close his eyes as the camera panned away.
    — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Kodak Black ain’t just mumble rap talking about drugs and killing.
    — Michael Saponara, Billboard, 12 June 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
  • 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
  • Sia, known for mumbling her lyrics, sounds precise and luminous here.
    — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 26 Sep. 2019
  • So meagre, my wife, the one sitting next to her, kept mumbling, ‘Is this it?
    — Martha Ross, Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2025
  • 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
  • His words became rapid, rushed, mumbled and hard to understand.
    — Dana Hunsinger Benbow, Indianapolis Star, 28 Oct. 2019
  • 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
  • Ana mumbling something about the font size for Boyce Fox’s book cover.
    — Peggy Truong, Cosmopolitan, 9 Feb. 2018
  • 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
  • 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
  • The mumbling girl is ill and must be taken to hospital, where her mother whimpers prayers over her.
    — Namwali Serpell, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Of all the sins that might damn your soul for eternity, mumbling is probably pretty far down the list.
    — JSTOR Daily, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The engine note is a letdown, too, monotonous and mumbling even at full load.
    — Eric Tingwall, Car and Driver, 27 Oct. 2017

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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