Definitions for: Stumble


[n] an unintentional but embarrassing blunder; "he recited the whole poem without a single trip"; "confusion caused his unfortunate misstep"
[n] an unsteady uneven gait
[v] make an error
[v] miss a step and fall or nearly fall; "She stumbled over the tree root."
[v] walk unsteadily
[v] encounter by chance; "I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant"



Webster (1913) Definition: Stum"ble, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stumbled; p. pr. & vb.
n. Stumbling.] [OE. stumblen, stomblen; freq. of a word
akin to E. stammer. See Stammer.]
1. To trip in walking or in moving in any way with the legs;
to strike the foot so as to fall, or to endanger a fall;
to stagger because of a false step.

There stumble steeds strong and down go all.
--Chaucer.

The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know at
what they stumble. --Prov. iv.
19.

2. To walk in an unsteady or clumsy manner.

He stumbled up the dark avenue. --Sir W.
Scott.

3. To fall into a crime or an error; to err.

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and
there is none occasion og stumbling in him. --1 John
ii. 10.

4. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without
design; to fall or light by chance; -- with on, upon, or
against.

Ovid stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon Livia in a
bath. --Dryden.

Forth as she waddled in the brake, A gray goose
stumbled on a snake. --C. Smart.


Stum"ble, v. t.
1. To cause to stumble or trip.

2. Fig.: To mislead; to confound; to perplex; to cause to err
or to fall.

False and dazzling fires to stumble men. --Milton.

One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of
this hypothesis. --Locke.


Stum"ble, n.
1. A trip in walking or running.

2. A blunder; a failure; a fall from rectitude.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an
honorable life. --L'Estrange.

Synonyms: blunder, bumble, falter, hit, lurch, misstep, slip up, stagger, trip, trip, trip up

See Also: bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, botch, bungle, come by, err, flub, foul-up, founder, fuckup, gait, mistake, move, slip, walk

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