资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.