stumble

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stam- (“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”), thereby related to German stumm (“mute”), Dutch stom (“dumb”). Doublet of stammer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstʌmbəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmbəl

stumble (plural stumbles)

1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     I went to his aid. As he said, a board in the floor was loose. His stepping on it unawares had caused his stumble.

2. An error or blunder.
   • 2022 July 21, Emily Hell, “TikTok’s Pink Sauce chef defends her viral condiment”, in Washington Post‎^[1]:

     She owns up to early stumbles, such as bottles being mislabeled.

3. A clumsy walk.
   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

     From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

• (a blunder): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, thinko
• See also Thesaurus:error

stumble (third-person singular simple present stumbles, present participle stumbling, simple past and past participle stumbled)

1. (intransitive) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.

   He stumbled over a rock.

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     He stumbled up the dark avenue.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.

2. (intransitive) To make a mistake or have trouble.

   I always stumble over verbs in Spanish.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 28:7:

     […] they are out of the way through strong drinke, they erre in vision, they stumble in iudgement.

3. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
   • 2017, Jacqueline Druga, Sleepers, page 39:

     Slowly, I turned around and the shock of it stumbled me back a few steps.

4. (transitive, figurative) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:

     False and dazzling fires to stumble men.

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “An Examination of P[ère] Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:

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

5. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
   • 1681, John Dryden, “The Preface to Ovid’s Epistles”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Epistles, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 12:

     It ſeems more probable that Ovid was either the Confident of ſome other paſſion, or that he had ſtumbled by some inadvertency, upon the privacies of Livia, and ſeen her in a Bath: […]

   • 1754, Christopher Smart, Snake:

     Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.

• stumble across
• stumble against
• stumble-drunk
• stumble into
• stumble on
• stumble onto
• stumble upon

• stumbling block

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stumble”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• tumbles