Stum·ble v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stumbled p. pr. & vb. n. Stumbling ]
 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.