stumbleverb
uk/ˈstʌm.bəl/us/ˈstʌm.bəl/stumble verb (WALK)
C2 [ I ] to step awkwardly while walking or running and fall or begin to fall:
Running along the beach, she stumbled on a log and fell on the sand.
In the final straight Meyers stumbled, and although he didn't fall it was enough to lose him first place.
[ I usually + adv/prep ] to walk in a way that does not seem controlled:
We could hear her stumbling about/around the bedroom in the dark.
He pulled on his clothes and stumbled into the kitchen.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Falling and dropping
- ass
- ass over teakettle idiom
- collapse
- collapse/fall in a heap idiom
- cropper
- crumple
- drop
- drop like flies idiom
- drop sb/sth off
- fly
- hit the deck idiom
- let go idiom
- nosedive
- overbalance
- parachutist
- plunge
- pratfall
- put sth/sb down
- shower
- wayside
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Moving unsteadily or with difficulty
stumble verb (PAUSE)
C2 [ I ] to make a mistake, such as repeating something or pausing for too long, while speaking or playing a piece of music:
When the poet stumbled over a line in the middle of a poem, someone in the audience corrected him.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Ways of speaking
- accent
- accentuate
- aitch
- asperity
- BBC English
- breathe
- cut glass
- get your tongue around/round sth idiom
- intone
- lenis
- modulate
- monotone
- plummy
- pragmatics
- singsong
- soft-spoken
- sotto voce
- speech therapy
- spoken
- trip off the tongue idiom
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Making mistakes
Phrasal verb(s)
stumble across/on/upon sth/sb
stumble into sth