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What is "stumble"

Crossword clues for stumble

stumble
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
stumble
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
slip/stumble/trip etc and fall
▪ He slipped and fell on the ice.
stumbling block
▪ The main stumbling block to starting new research is that we lack qualified people.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
across
▪ I stumbled across one shack, but was lucky this farmer was easy going.
▪ You might stumble across a phrase or image that seems possible, but as a whole this faux scrapbook reeks.
▪ And in the process we stumbled across a great idea, an entirely new security.
▪ They sleep during the day, so if you stumble across one and startle it awake, they can be dangerous.
▪ Kent stumbled across the map stop 17 years ago when he came to San Diego from Florida.
along
▪ They had been stumbling along for some time, trying to be as quiet as possible.
▪ Yet somehow we stumbled along and became better friends.
▪ As she stumbled along the path, she began to sob.
▪ Two men stumbled along ahead of the wheels treading out a safe path across the seething grass.
▪ Every now and again some of it fell off, sometimes on to the lane, often on to the nomes stumbling along it.
▪ On the way to the camp, we passed Sabira Radic, 31, stumbling along the road.
▪ You were stumbling along, following the tracks of a tank.
▪ He ran stumbling along the road, which gave out after a few hundred yards.
around
▪ I stumbled around a while then finally located the car.
▪ But who could have anticipated the stumbling around, the tenuous grip on reality?
▪ Rather than stumbling around like a drunken man.
▪ He had stumbled around in her basement under a 25-watt bulb, plowing through marked boxes.
▪ Out of the blazing wreck he leaped, stumbling around on fire from head to toe and screaming.
▪ As he stumbled around the far side of the breakwater, the hard sand was replaced by thick mud.
away
▪ He stumbled away in the direction of his own idea; they followed.
▪ Everyone stumbled away, Dove and the onlookers.
▪ They staggered and stumbled away with him.
▪ Sir Alexander Seton stumbled away, a stricken man.
▪ And I felt worse, as I stumbled away, remembering Gharr's laughter when I'd struck him.
▪ She stumbled away, broken and on the verge of despair.
back
▪ He then stumbles back on to the shore and collapses to a sitting position.
▪ He cried out in pain and stumbled back against the wall.
▪ The entire frame shuddered, and Cardiff stumbled back.
▪ Mobuto recoiled in horror, stumbling back painfully into the Studebaker's wing mirror.
▪ He was stronger than he looked and I stumbled back into his partner.
▪ She came stumbling back into the dining car followed by a commotion of people yelling behind her.
backwards
▪ She stumbled backwards and I darted out of the way as she fell over.
▪ The old man wobbled and stumbled backwards, wagging his head as if he were trying to shake something out of it.
▪ A cook from the kitchens took one in the eye and stumbled backwards with his hands pressed to his temples.
▪ Yukio's face erupting before her, stumbling backwards, a pressure on her elbow.
▪ The grass blades tore, but their initial resistance sent him stumbling backwards.
▪ In panic she stumbled backwards, twisted round and tried to run into the living room.
▪ He stumbled backwards and struck a bed screen that crashed to the floor, bringing him with it.
▪ As Seawitch rolled heavily Polly's foot slipped on the wet deck and she stumbled backwards, pulling Nathan with her.
down
▪ He took his hand away, but as she stumbled down the ladder she could still feel its warm weight.
▪ We ignore the down-at-heel and dissolute as we heartlessly window-shop the boulevards they stumble down.
▪ She reached the stairs, and stumbled down them.
▪ Drunk with fatigue, l stumbled down from the gallery and asked Rafal how much I owed.
▪ He left his rifle on the bank and stumbled down into the water.
▪ She stumbled down the gangway to the hatch.
forward
▪ She stumbled forward, her legs leaden, afraid to let her eyes sweep the room, afraid not to.
▪ He stumbled forward, and tripped, and fell.
▪ He felt as if he weren't so much walking now as stumbling forward under the weight of that thought.
▪ He was stumbling forward before he knew it, hardly aware of the leaf-mould beneath his feet, hushing his footsteps.
▪ Danjit stumbled forward so that for a moment she felt his lubricious body-thrust.
▪ He stumbled forward so as not to fall.
▪ Lewis bided his time in the second round, but his opportunity came when Grant stumbled forward after a clumsy lunge.
▪ The jumpers stumble forward as they hit, grinning and laughing.
in
▪ They had stumbled in upon what was quite clearly nothing less than a pagan sacrifice.
▪ The old man stumbled in, flapping his stump toward the outside.
▪ As we stumble in, Mad Richard from Verve is inadvertently pulling down chunks of the ceiling.
off
▪ I stumbled off to be sick behind an armoured personnel carrier as he started on Marius.
▪ I stumbled off to polite applause.
▪ Midway through the fourth song, Yorick gave up and stumbled off the stage.
▪ Derek stumbled off into the nearest clump of vegetation and disturbed three petrified rabbits.
on
▪ She stumbled on to the parched grass, taking in her surroundings.
▪ At that the discussion again broke down, but somehow they stumbled on to plans for a dance and a party.
▪ I feel only that we have taken a wrong direction somewhere, and are blindly stumbling on because our leaders blindfold us.
▪ Other weight-loss drugs are things people stumbled on by accident.
▪ Something we haven't stumbled on yet?
▪ All there was left to do was to stumble on, dutifully following the tracks on the ground as they appeared.
▪ They stumbled on, half unconscious with fatigue.
▪ Absorbed in his thoughts, he stumbled on.
out
▪ Michael was after me, stumbling out on to the launch platform half-dressed and babbling about two-month training courses.
▪ One night, he stumbled out of his house in the Los Gatos hills, wandering aimlessly.
▪ I stumbled out and the ground seemed to tilt.
▪ I stumbled out of town with barely enough strength to reach the city limits.
▪ I stumbled out that I couldn't live with Richard any longer.
▪ She stumbled out of bed and went to the kitchen.
over
▪ I stumbled over him when he was visiting Ted Yaxlee.
▪ A further accident - stumbling over a coffer of government funds in his care - fatally scatters temptation before him.
▪ Or the actor who stumbles over his words for the second time at a rehearsal.
▪ The khthon stumbled over the response.
▪ And here Kames neatly clears up a matter which earlier critics had stumbled over.
▪ He stumbled over graves and bumped into headstones - but he didn't stop.
▪ It has been greatly influenced by the tangled confusion into which the Anglican Communion has stumbled over the ordination of women.
▪ Time after time I stumbled over some hummock of tough grass, and once I went into a creek up to my shoulders.
upon
▪ And that was when Kegl realized what she had stumbled upon.
▪ And one day I stumbled upon a book that changed my young life: The Great Mouthpiece.
▪ In my own rambles around vents I have stumbled upon and helped describe a few of the new species.
▪ What is this strange, varied and most wonderfully intricate land that we have stumbled upon?
■ NOUN
fall
▪ She let him stumble and fall to his knees.
▪ Horrified passengers saw Olive stumble and fall off a platform as an express roared in.
foot
▪ She stumbled to her feet, clutching the eiderdown around her, and opened her mouth to call to them.
▪ She stumbled to her feet, wiping her hands uselessly on her tattered dress before holding them out.
▪ She stumbled to her feet, crossed the dark room and switched on the light.
▪ The horses pulling the train came to a halt and Eline stumbled to her feet.
path
▪ Richier's figures blindly stumble on their confused paths.
▪ Major stumbling blocks on the path to self-knowledge are denial and blame.
▪ As she stumbled along the path, she began to sob.
▪ Stan Gordon felt the same before he stumbled on to a path out of the debt-ridden abyss.
▪ The sky was already beginning to darken as she stumbled along the path.
▪ I don't want anyone with personal feelings stumbling across my path.
way
▪ Fleischmann and Pons believed that they had stumbled on another way - intense pressures provided by the natural make-up of solid palladium.
▪ Not only did he drink in private, now he stumbled his way home for all the world to see.
▪ For two days, police in the remote coastal region around Sodwana Bay had stumbled and fumbled their way into the case.
▪ We stumbled our way through the cemetery, not saying anything to each other.
▪ It emerged as the most successful of the dozen experiments, largely because it stumbled on a different way of doing business.
▪ We might stumble on the way and wonder whether it is worth all the effort.
▪ The bottom line: The parties have stumbled a short way forward, but the journey is far from over.
word
▪ Or the actor who stumbles over his words for the second time at a rehearsal.
▪ But forgive him if his voice cracks or he stumbles over a word.
▪ They stumble over simple words or figures.
▪ He stumbled over his words as he read his speech from a Teleprompter.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I finished the whiskey, then stumbled upstairs and into bed.
▪ In her hurry, Eva stumbled and dropped the tray she was carrying.
▪ Mason headed towards the house, stumbling on the rough ground.
▪ One runner stumbled, but was able to regain her balance.
▪ The room was dark, and Stan nearly fell over a chair as he stumbled to the phone.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As she stumbled along the path, she began to sob.
▪ As they stumbled lower one sound rose up to meet them.
▪ He stumbled over the upturned pot but scrambled back to his feet.
▪ She stumbled backward, out of range, but he stepped toward her and raised his stick again.
▪ She begun to run, stumbling.
▪ They stumble over simple words or figures.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stumble

Stumble \Stum"ble\, 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.
    --Milton.

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

Stumble

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.

    There stumble steeds strong and down go all.
    --Chaucer.

    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.
    --Sir W. Scott.

  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.
    --Dryden.

    Forth as she waddled in the brake, A gray goose stumbled on a snake.
    --C. Smart.

Stumble

Stumble \Stum"ble\, 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.
    --L'Estrange.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
stumble

c.1300, "to trip or miss one's footing" (physically or morally), probably from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Norwegian stumla, Swedish stambla "to stumble"), probably from a variant of the Proto-Germanic base *stam-, source of Old English stamerian "to stammer," German stumm, Dutch stom "dumb, silent." Possibly influenced in form by stumpen "to stumble," but the -b- may be purely euphonious. Meaning "to come (upon) by chance" is attested from 1550s. Related: Stumbled; stumbling. Stumbling-block first recorded 1526 (Tindale), used in Rom. xiv:13, where usually it translates Greek skandalon.

stumble

1540s, "act of stumbling," from stumble (v.). Meaning "a failure, false step" is from 1640s.

Wiktionary
stumble

n. 1 A fall, trip or substantial misstep. 2 An error or blunder. 3 A clumsy walk. vb. (context intransitive English) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.

Related phrases:
WordNet
stumble

  1. v. walk unsteadily; "The drunk man stumbled about" [syn: falter, bumble]

  2. miss a step and fall or nearly fall; "She stumbled over the tree root" [syn: trip]

  3. encounter by chance; "I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant" [syn: hit]

  4. make an error; "She slipped up and revealed the name" [syn: slip up, trip up]

stumble

  1. n. an unsteady uneven gait [syn: lurch, 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, misstep]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Stumble

Stumble is Prakash Belawadi's debut film. It won the Indian National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English in 2003. It depicts the new economy, the dot-com bust, stock market scams, mutual funds, and voluntary retirement.

The production team intended Stumble to be a film for the middle-class Ananth Nag and Suhasini are in the lead rôles, alongside Priya Ganapati and Allen Mandonca. Belawadi found his cast through the theatre world of Bangalore, and was wholly filmed there . Jesu Domnic and Shyam Nanjundaiah were Editors for this movie. One of the editors Shyam Nanjundaiah also played a small part in the film, appearing alongside Ananth Nag for a brief scene.

The movie was featured at the international technical festival, Pragyan at NIT Trichy in January 2006. It was also screened at the Mumbai National Film Festival.

Stumble (disambiguation)

Stumble may refer to:

  • Stumble, 2003 Indian film
Stumble (album)

Stumble is the second album by the AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark, which was recorded live at Chicago's Unity Temple in 1998 and released on Wobbly Rail, a short-lived imprint started by Merge Records/ Superchunk principal Mac McCaughan. AALY Trio is a Swedish free jazz band led by saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Originally just a guest, Vandermark became a full member of the group.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "stumble".

The automated exploration vehicle has stumbled on a strike that looks like it may be one of the biggest finds in the history of lunar exploration.

Taverik wanted to balk, shout to his father for help, sit down and refuse to move-but somehow his stiff knees bent and he stumbled, half-supported out the door.

She came to the head of the stairs, stretched out one hand to the baluster rail and then, unaccountably, she stumbled, tried to recover her balance, failed and went headlong down the stairs.

Reeling, stumbling, Barranca fell into the wall and slid slowly down until he sat propped against it, staring back with a sardonic red-freckled grimace.

The Shadow had dropped, this forgotten battler had stumbled upon a saber.

It was almost dusk when the leaders of the Beduin company stumbled upon a village.

The old-style thunderers like Senators Borah and Hiram Johnson managed to be both vociferous against war and bellicose against Japan without stumbling over any internal difficulty.

He stumbled over to the sink, splashed cold water on his face, and took another benzedrine pill.

Katelyn stumbles as she climbs into the water taxi, and Bonny, already in, grabbing her arm to steady her, is almost pulled over.

In three bounding strides, he hauled horse and rider back to a stumbling halt.

I think it safe to assume that Brasque stumbled on the correct sequence by chance.

Larssen cried out, firing as he stumbled backward, while Brast stood in terror, feet rooted to the ground, his arms clawing at the darkness.

A solo mole person, however, burrowing away at random, was likely to starve long before stumbling across the scattered bounty.

Thus for hour after hour we crept up and on, occasionally butting into the trunk of a tree or stumbling over a fallen bough, but meeting with no other adventures or obstacles of a physical kind.

I was on the point of telling her that I was convinced the hortator had plotted with pirates to wreck the craft when she rose and stumbled out, saying in a dazed way.