Stumble

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: stum=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

Stumble, v. i. [OE. stumblen, stomblen; freq. of a word akin to E. stammer. See Stammer.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "There stumble steeds strong and down go all."  [1913 Webster]

  "The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know at what they stumble."  [1913 Webster]
•  To walk in an unsteady or clumsy manner.  [1913 Webster]

  "He stumbled up the dark avenue."  [1913 Webster]
•  To fall into a crime or an error; to err.  [1913 Webster]

  "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion og stumbling in him."  [1913 Webster]
•  To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; -- with on, upon, or against.  [1913 Webster]

  "Ovid stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon Livia in a bath."  [1913 Webster]

  "Forth as she waddled in the brake,
  A gray goose stumbled on a snake."  [1913 Webster]

Stumble, v. t. 

•  To cause to stumble or trip.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: To mislead; to confound; to perplex; to cause to err or to fall.  [1913 Webster]

  "False and dazzling fires to stumble men."  [1913 Webster]

  "One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis."  [1913 Webster]

Stumble, n. 

•  A trip in walking or running.  [1913 Webster]
•  A blunder; a failure; a fall from rectitude.  [1913 Webster]

  "One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Stumble, v. & n.
--v.
1 intr. lurch forward or have a partial fall from catching or striking or misplacing one's foot.
2 intr. (often foll. by along) walk with repeated stumbles.
3 intr. make a mistake or repeated mistakes in speaking etc.
4 intr. (foll. by on, upon, across) find or encounter by chance (stumbled on a disused well).
--n. an act of stumbling.

Idiom

stumbling-block an obstacle or circumstance causing difficulty or hesitation.

Derivative

stumbler n. stumblingly adv.

Etymology

ME stumble (with euphonic b) corresp. to Norw. stumla: rel. to STAMMER

THESAURUS

Stumble

bad job, balk, barge, be all thumbs, bevue, blunder, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, bobble, boggle, bonehead play, boner, boo-boo, botch, breakdown, bumble, bump, bump into, bungle, butcher, capsize, careen, career, chance, clump, clumsy performance, collapse, come a cropper, come across, come up against, comedown, commit a gaffe, crash, cropper, culbute, deflation, deviate, discover, dive, downfall, encounter, err, error, etourderie, fall, fall down, fall flat, fall headlong, fall into error, fall over, fall prostrate, fall upon, false move, false step, falter, faux pas, find, flop, flounce, flounder, flub, fluff, foozle, forced landing, fumble, gag, gaucherie, get a cropper, go amiss, go astray, go awry, go wrong, halt, hash, have two minds, haw, header, hem, hem and haw, hesitate, hit, hit upon, hum, hum and haw, inadvertence, inadvertency, jib, labor, lapse, lapsus calami, lapsus linguae, light, limp, list, loose thread, luck, lumber, lurch, mammer, mar, meet, mess, miscalculate, miscue, misstep, mistake, muck, muddle, muff, murder, nose dive, off day, omission, oversight, pause, pitch, pitch and plunge, play havoc with, plunge, pose, pratfall, reel, rock, roll, run across, sad work, scruple, seethe, shy, slip, slip up, slipup, smash, snapper, spill, spoil, sprawl, spread-eagle, stagger, stammer, stick, stickle, strain, stray, struggle, stump, stutter, sway, swing, tailspin, take a fall, take a flop, take a header, take a pratfall, take a spill, thrash about, tilt, topple, topple down, topple over, toss, toss and tumble, toss and turn, totter, trip, tumble, turn turtle, volutation, wallop, wallow, wander, waver, welter, wobble, wrong step

ROGET THESAURUS

Stumble

Unskillfulness

VB be unskillful, not see an inch beyond one's nose, blunder, bungle, boggle, fumble, botch, bitch, flounder, stumble, trip, hobble, put one's foot in it, make a mess of, make hash of, make sad work of, overshoot the mark, play tricks with, play Puck, mismanage, misconduct, misdirect, misapply, missend, stultify oneself, make a fool of oneself, commit oneself, act foolishly, play the fool, put oneself out of court, lose control, lose control of oneself, lose one's head, lose one's cunning, begin at the wrong end, do things by halves, make two bites of a cherry, play at cross purposes, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, put the cart before the horse, lock the stable door when the horse is stolen, not know what one is about, not know one's own interest, not know on which side one's bread is buttered, stand in one's own light, quarrel with one's bread and butter, throw a stone in one's own garden, kill the goose which lays the golden eggs, pay dear for one's whistle, cut one's own throat, bum one's fingers, knock one's head against a stone wall, beat one's head against a stone wall, fall into a trap, catch a Tartar, bring the house about one's ears, have too many eggs in one basket (imprudent), have too many irons in the fire, mistake, take the shadow for the substance, bark up the wrong tree, be in the wrong box, aim at a pigeon and kill a crow, take the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, get the dirty end of the stick, put the saddle on the wrong horse, put a square peg into a round hole, put new wine into old bottles, cut blocks with a razor, hold a farthing candle to the sun, fight with a shadow, grasp at a shadow, catch at straws, lean on a broken reed, reckon without one's host, pursue a wild goose chase, go on a fool's goose chase, sleeveless errand, go further and fare worse, lose one's way, miss one's way, fail.

Failure

N failure, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment, dead failure, successlessness, abortion, miscarriage, brutum fulmen, labor in vain, no go, inefficacy, inefficaciousness, vain attempt, ineffectual attempt, abortive attempt, abortive efforts, flash in the pan, lame and impotent conclusion, frustration, slip 'twixt cup and lip, blunder, fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall, false step, wrong step, faux pas, titubation, b_evue, faute, lurch, botchery, scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown, flunk, mishap, split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion, repulse, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture, beating, drubbing, quietus, nonsuit, subjugation, checkmate, stalemate, fool's mate, fall, downfall, ruin, perdition, wreck, deathblow, bankruptcy, losing game, affaire flamb_ee, victim, bankrupt, flunker, flunky, unsuccessful, successless, failing, tripping, at fault, unfortunate, abortive, addle, stillborn, fruitless, bootless, ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory, inefficient, insufficient, unavailing, of no effect, aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited, foiled, defeated, struck down, borne down, broken down, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, all up with, ploughed, plowed, plucked, lost, undone, ruined, broken, bankrupt, played out, done up, done for, dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head, destroyed, frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed, thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends, unhorsed, in a sorry plight, hard hit, stultified, befooled, dished, hoist on one's own petard, victimized, sacrificed, wide of the mark, out of one's reckoning, left in the lurch, thrown away, unattained, uncompleted, unsuccessfully, to little or no purpose, in vain, re infecta, the bubble has burst, the jig is up, the game is up, all is lost, the devil to pay, parturiunt montes, dies infaustus, tout est perdu hors l'honneur.

VB fail, be unsuccessful, not succeed, make vain efforts, do in vain, labor in vain, toil in vain, flunk, lose one's labor, take nothing by one's motion, bring to naught, make nothing of, wash a blackamoor white, roll the stones of Sisyphus, do by halves, lose ground, fall short of, miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays, slip, trip, stumble, make a slip, blunder, make a mess of, make a botch of, bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, limp, halt, hobble, titubate, fall, tumble, lose one's balance, fall to the ground, fall between two stools, flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock, beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall, break one's back, break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one, get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape, come to grief, go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot, lick the dust, bite the dust, be defeated, have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose, fall a prey to, succumb, not have a leg to stand on, come to nothing, end in smoke, flat out, fall to the ground, fall through, fall dead, fall stillborn, fall flat, slip through one's fingers, hang fire, miss fire, flash in the pan, collapse, topple down, go to wrack and ruin, go amiss, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack, go on ill, come off ill, turn out ill, work ill, take a wrong term, take an ugly term, take an ugly turn, take a turn for the worse, be all over with, be all up with, explode, dash one's hopes, defeat the purpose, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, go from the frying pan into the fire.

Descent

N descent, descension, declension, declination, fall, falling, slump, drop, plunge, plummet, cadence, subsidence, collapse, lapse, downfall, tumble, slip, tilt, trip, lurch, cropper, culbute, titubation, stumble, fate of Icarus, avalanche, debacle, landslip, landslide, declivity, dip, hill, rappel, descending, descendent, decurrent, decursive, labent, deciduous, nodding to its fall, downhill, downwards, the bottom fell out.

VB descend, go down, drop down, come down, fall, gravitate, drop, slip, slide, rappel, settle, plunge, plummet, crash, decline, set, sink, droop, come down a peg, slump, dismount, alight, light, get down, swoop, stoop, fall prostrate, precipitate oneself, let fall, tumble, trip, stumble, titubate, lurch, pitch, swag, topple, topple over, tumble over, topple down, tumble down, tilt, sprawl, plump down, come down a cropper.

Agitation

VB be agitated, shake, tremble, tremble like an aspen leaf, quiver, quaver, quake, shiver, twitter, twire, writhe, toss, shuffle, tumble, stagger, bob, reel, sway, wag, waggle, wriggle, wriggle like an eel, dance, stumble, shamble, flounder, totter, flounce, flop, curvet, prance, cavort, squirm, throb, pulsate, beat, palpitate, go pitapat, flutter, flitter, flicker, bicker, bustle, ferment, effervesce, foam, boil, boil over, bubble up, simmer, toss about, jump about, jump like a parched pea, shake like an aspen leaf, shake to its center, shake to its foundations, be the sport of the winds and waves, reel to and fro like a drunken man, move from post to pillar and from pillar to post, drive from post to pillar and from pillar to post, keep between hawk and buzzard, agitate, shake, convulse, toss, tumble, bandy, wield, brandish, flap, flourish, whisk, jerk, hitch, jolt, jog, joggle, jostle, buffet, hustle, disturb, stir, shake up, churn, jounce, wallop, whip, vellicate.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.

VB be erroneous, cause error, mislead, misguide, lead astray, lead into error, beguile, misinform, delude, give a false impression, give a false idea, falsify, misstate, deceive, lie, err, be in error, be mistaken, be deceived, mistake, receive a false impression, deceive oneself, fall into error, lie under error, labor under an error, be in the wrong, blunder, misapprehend, misconceive, misunderstand, misreckon, miscount, miscalculate, play at cross purposes, be at cross purposes, trip, stumble, lose oneself, go astray, fail, be in the wrong box, take the wrong sow by the ear, put the saddle on the wrong horse, reckon without one's host, take the shadow for the substance, dream.