Stumble

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ÊŒmbÉ™l

Full definition of stumble

Noun

1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
2. An error or blunder.
3. A clumsy walk.
• 2013-06-08, The new masters and commanders, 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.

Synonyms

• (a blunder) blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, thinko

Verb

1. (intransitive) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
• Sir Walter ScottHe stumbled up the dark avenue.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, 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. He stumbled over a rock.
3. (intransitive) To make a mistake or have trouble.
   I always stumble over verbs in Spanish.
4. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
5. (transitive, figurative) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
• MiltonFalse and dazzling fires to stumble men.
• John LockeOne thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis.
6. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
• DrydenOvid stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon Livia in a bath.
• C. SmartForth as she waddled in the brake,
  A grey goose stumbled on a snake.

Derived terms

• stumble across
• stumble against
• stumble on
• stumble upon

Anagrams

• tumbles