Definition of "stumble"

stumble

/ˈstʌmbəl/

noun
plural stumbles
1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
2. An error or blunder.
  Quotations
  She owns up to early stumbles, such as bottles being mislabeled.
  2022 July 21, Emily Hell, “TikTok’s Pink Sauce chef defends her viral condiment”, in Washington Post‎
3. A clumsy walk.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52
verb
third-person singular simple present stumbles, present participle stumbling, simple past and past participle stumbled
1. (intransitive) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
  Quotations
  He stumbled up the dark avenue.
  1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […]
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (intransitive) To make a mistake or have trouble.
  Quotations
  […] they are out of the way through strong drinke, they erre in vision, they stumble in iudgement.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Isaiah 28:7
3. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
  Quotations
  Slowly, I turned around and the shock of it stumbled me back a few steps.
  2017, Jacqueline Druga, Sleepers, page 39
4. (transitive, figurative) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
  Quotations
  False and dazzling fires to stumble men.
  1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.]
  One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis.
  a. 1705, John Locke, “An Examination of P[ère] Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706
5. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
  Quotations
  It ſeems more probable that Ovid was 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: […]
  1681, John Dryden, “The Preface to Ovid’s Epistles”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Epistles, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], page 12
  Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.
  1754, Christopher Smart, Snake

Definition of "stumble"

stumble

noun

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verb

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