FluentPlex

stumble

/ˈstʌmbəl/ verb B1
  1. To misstep; to walk or run clumsily; to trip or fall. (intransitive) · He stumbled over a rock.· Last night, you drunkenly stumbled to the front door, waking up the whole house.
  2. To make mistakes, to have trouble. (intransitive) · I always stumble over verbs in Spanish.
  3. To cause to stumble or trip. (transitive)
  4. To mislead, to cause to err or fall. (transitive)
  5. To make a discovery unexpectedly or accidentally; to chance, come, or happen (upon a person or thing) (with onto, across, on, upon). (intransitive) · We stumbled onto the answer without even trying.

He/she/it stumbles · Past stumbled · Past participle stumbled · -ing form stumbling

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Verb forms

Base form
stumble
He/she/it
stumbles
Past
stumbled
Past participle
stumbled
-ing form
stumbling

From the library

“My friend,” said Andrea, “I was coming from Mortefontaine to Senlis, when my horse, which is a troublesome creature, stumbled and threw me.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 977 · C1
After a few hours the road began to be rough, and the walking grew so difficult that the Scarecrow often stumbled over the yellow bricks, which were here very uneven.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, p. 19 · B2
After an hour or so the light faded away, and they found themselves stumbling along in the darkness.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, p. 24 · B2
Dorothy was thinking so earnestly as they walked along that she did not notice when the Scarecrow stumbled into a hole and rolled over to the side of the road.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, p. 28 · B2

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.