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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)