STUMBLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Stumble

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/stˈəmbəl/ Listen

verb

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

Stumble v. i. (past & past part. stumbled; pres. part. stumbling)

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." "The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know at what they stumble."

2.

To walk in an unsteady or clumsy manner. "He stumbled up the dark avenue."

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."

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." "Forth as she waddled in the brake, A gray goose stumbled on a snake."

noun

Stumble 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."

See images of 'Stumble'

Etymology of 'Stumble'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stumble" Quotes from Famous Books

... his head. "Not so," he said. "I do not follow the path, and your feet would stumble. I shall find a way without sinking in the snow. I must go alone. But there is a better way for you. I leave my dove with you: she will keep you warm until help comes. Farewell, friend of the Lord's friends." Stooping ...

— Christmas in Legend and Story - A Book for Boys and Girls • Elva S. Smith

... promise from God's mouth for that; nor is grace or strength ministered to mankind by the covenant that thou art under. So that still thou standest bound to thy good behaviour; and in the day that thou dost give the first, though ever so little a trip, or stumble in thy obedience, thou forfeitest thine interest in paradise (and in justice), ...

— The Pharisee And The Publican • John Bunyan

... the critical epochs of a close relation, patience and justice are not qualities on which we can rely. But the look or the gesture explains things in a breath; they tell their message without ambiguity; unlike speech, they cannot stumble, by the way, on a reproach or an allusion that should steel your friend against the truth; and then they have a higher authority, for they are the direct expression of the heart, not yet transmitted through the unfaithful and sophisticating brain. ...

— Virginibus Puerisque • Robert Louis Stevenson

... followed, the wild cheer and onward dash, the race over blood-stained snow-patches, the stumble over falling forms (some friend, some foe), the ripping and slashing at fire-spitting lodges, in which some of the band had sought refuge, the agonized screaming of children, the appalling shrieks of the squaws—of all this it was difficult later to give clear account. Geordie ...

— To The Front - A Sequel to Cadet Days • Charles King

... counted themselves the greatest sinners! Neither can I forget that other saying of our Lord, a stumbling-block to many—our Lord was not so careful as perhaps some would have had him, lest men should stumble at the truth—The first shall be last and the last first. While our Lord spoke the words: The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service, even then was Saul of Tarsus at the feet of Gamaliel, preparing ...

— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald

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