stumble Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an unsteady uneven gait
    stagger; lurch.
  2. noun an unintentional but embarrassing blunder
    trip-up; misstep; trip.
    • he recited the whole poem without a single trip
    • he arranged his robes to avoid a trip-up later
    • confusion caused his unfortunate misstep
  3. verb walk unsteadily
    falter; bumble.
    • The drunk man stumbled about
  4. verb miss a step and fall or nearly fall
    trip.
    • She stumbled over the tree root
  5. verb encounter by chance
    hit.
    • I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant
  6. verb make an error
    trip up; slip up.
    • She slipped up and revealed the name

WordNet


Stum"ble intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. stumblen, stomblen; freq. of a word akin to E. stammer. See Stammer.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stumbled ; present participle & verbal noun Stumbling
Definitions
  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 transitive verb
Definitions
  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 noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913