stumbling

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To misstep; to walk or run clumsily; to trip or fall.
   • He stumbled over a rock.
2. (intransitive) To make mistakes, to have trouble.
   • I always stumble over verbs in Spanish.

   Synonyms:

   blunder, err

3. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
   • Slowly, I turned around and the shock of it stumbled me back a few steps.2017, Jacqueline Druga, Sleepers, page 39

   Synonyms:

   trip up

4. (transitive) To mislead, to cause to err or fall.
   • False and dazzling fires to stumble men.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

   Synonyms:

   confound

5. (intransitive) To make a discovery unexpectedly or accidentally; to chance, come, or happen (upon a person or thing) (with onto, across, on, upon).
   • We stumbled onto the answer without even trying.

See all 8 meanings of stumble