stumble
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
stumble
n 1: an unsteady uneven gait [syn: {lurch}, {stumble},
{stagger}]
2: an unintentional but embarrassing blunder; "he recited the
whole poem without a single trip"; "he arranged his robes to
avoid a trip-up later"; "confusion caused his unfortunate
misstep" [syn: {trip}, {trip-up}, {stumble}, {misstep}]
v 1: walk unsteadily; "The drunk man stumbled about" [syn:
{stumble}, {falter}, {bumble}]
2: miss a step and fall or nearly fall; "She stumbled over the
tree root" [syn: {stumble}, {trip}]
3: encounter by chance; "I stumbled across a long-lost cousin
last night in a restaurant" [syn: {stumble}, {hit}]
4: make an error; "She slipped up and revealed the name" [syn:
{stumble}, {slip up}, {trip up}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Stumble \Stum"ble\, v. t.
1. To cause to stumble or trip.
[1913 Webster]
2. Fig.: To mislead; to confound; to perplex; to cause to err
or to fall.
[1913 Webster]
False and dazzling fires to stumble men. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of
this hypothesis. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Stumble \Stum"ble\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Stumbled}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Stumbling}.] [OE. stumblen, stomblen; freq. of a word
akin to E. stammer. See {Stammer}.]
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.
[1913 Webster]
There stumble steeds strong and down go all.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know at
what they stumble. --Prov. iv.
19.
[1913 Webster]
2. To walk in an unsteady or clumsy manner.
[1913 Webster]
He stumbled up the dark avenue. --Sir W.
Scott.
[1913 Webster]
3. 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. --1 John
ii. 10.
[1913 Webster]
4. 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. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Forth as she waddled in the brake,
A gray goose stumbled on a snake. --C. Smart.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
177 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
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