stumble

noun

1. 1

   A fall, trip or substantial misstep.

   I went to his aid. As he said, a board in the floor was loose. His stepping on it unawares had caused his stumble.

2. 2

   An error or blunder.

   Possibly Mr. Carrados was considering it from his own way round for he did not appear to notice anything in her stumble.

   She owns up to early stumbles, such as bottles being mislabeled.

3. 3

   A clumsy walk.

   From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

verb

1. 1

   To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.

   He stumbled over a rock.

   Last night, you drunkenly stumbled to the front door, waking up the whole house.

   He stumbled up the dark avenue.

   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.

2. 2

   To make a mistake or have trouble.

   I always stumble over verbs in Spanish.

   […] they are out of the way through strong drinke, they erre in vision, they stumble in iudgement.

3. 3

   To cause to stumble or trip.

   Slowly, I turned around and the shock of it stumbled me back a few steps.

4. 4

   figurativeTo mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.

   False and dazzling fires to stumble men.

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

5. 5

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

   It ſeems more probable that Ovid vvas either the Confident of ſome other paſſion, or that he had ſtumbled by ſome inadvertency, upon the privacies of Livia, and ſeen her in a Bath: […]

   Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.

Forms

plural

stumbles

past tense

stumbled

past participle

stumbled

present participle

stumbling

third person singular

stumbles