Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To miss one's step in walking or running; trip and almost fall.
- intransitive verb To proceed unsteadily or falteringly; flounder. synonym: blunder.
- intransitive verb To act or speak falteringly or clumsily.
- intransitive verb To make a mistake or mistakes; blunder.
- intransitive verb To come upon accidentally or unexpectedly.
- intransitive verb To cause to stumble.
- noun The act of stumbling.
- noun A mistake or blunder.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To slip or trip in moving on the feet; make a false step; strike the foot, or miss footing, so as to stagger or fall.
- To move or act unsteadily or in a staggering manner; trip in doing or saying anything; make false steps or blunders, as from confusion or inattention: as, to
stumble through a performance. - To take a false step or be staggered mentally or morally; trip, as against a stumbling-block; find an occasion of offense; be offended or tempted.
- To come accidentally or unexpectedly; chance; happen; light: with on or upon.
- To cause to stumble; cause to trip; stagger; trip up.
- To puzzle; perplex; embarrass; nonplus; confound.
- noun The act of stumbling; a trip in walking or running.
- noun A blunder; a failure; a false step.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To cause to stumble or trip.
- transitive verb Fig.: To mislead; to confound; to perplex; to cause to err or to fall.
- noun A trip in walking or running.
- noun A blunder; a failure; a fall from rectitude.
- intransitive verb 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.
- intransitive verb To walk in an unsteady or clumsy manner.
- intransitive verb To fall into a crime or an error; to err.
- intransitive verb To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; -- with
on ,upon , oragainst .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
fall ,trip or substantialmisstep - noun an
error orblunder - verb intransitive to
trip orfall - verb intransitive to make a
mistake or havetrouble
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb miss a step and fall or nearly fall
- noun an unintentional but embarrassing blunder
- verb walk unsteadily
- verb encounter by chance
- verb make an error
- noun an unsteady uneven gait
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Or demand and effect nothing and yet again stumble into petulant seething marginalized mobs.
Jane-Howard Hammerstein: "You Can't Handle the Truth" ... Col. Jessup (a/k/a Jack Nicholson) Jane-Howard Hammerstein 2010
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Investors were hopeful that the slowing recovery over the summer may have been a short-term stumble, with improvement set for the end of the year.
Crude Falls as Euro-Zone Concerns Re-Emerge Jerry A. DiColo 2011
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The difference between brands boasting superior support and those who stumble translates to revenue and market share during what is traditionally the busiest quarter for tech vendors.
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Interesting, I would love to see them fall in stumble while attempting to report on US culture and social issues; racism?
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That coverage, though, included mention of a notable McCain stumble on the topic of removing the Snake River Dams.
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But prematurely and hastily restoring them at the first stumble is a guarantee of failure both for the patient and the doctor.
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Republican midterm stumble, or amid the rifts and rage of a sharply divided government if they prevail or sweep this November, the party may be irresistibly drawn to a recycled idea.
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The market's latest surge and its propensity to reverse every attempt at an intraday selloff show how investors have become more daring, raising the risk of a near-term stumble as complacency grows.
The Economic Times 2009
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Another reason this lawsuit might stumble is rooted in judges’ perceived role of courts, said Jay.
Law Profs Debate Merits of McKenna’s Anti-Obama Lawsuit « PubliCola 2010
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“That’s strange, every third stumble is an EBay auction …”
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