Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stumble?

\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.