Stumble /(?)/

Stum·ble

Stumble

v. i.

imp. & p. p. Stumbled; p. pr. & vb. n. 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.
    — Prov. iv. 19.
  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.
    — 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.
    Forth as she waddled in the brake, A gray goose stumbled on a snake.
    — C. Smart.

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

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.