stumble
(Informal)
[verb]
Synonyms:
- trip, fall, falter, lurch, reel, slip, stagger
- with across, on
or
upon: discover, chance upon, come across, find

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Antonyms: breeze
Related Idioms: come (or run) up against, fall upon, stub one's toe upon (or on)
Related Words: falter, waver, trip, fall, reel, stagger, totter, pitch, topple, careen, swing, hesitate, wobble, blunder, bumble, botch, bungle, muck

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English Thesaurus: fall, trip on/over something, slip, stumble, collapse, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

stum‧ble /ˈstʌmbəl/ verb [intransitive]
[Date: 1300-1400; Origin: Probably from a Scandinavian language]

1. to hit your foot against something or put your foot down awkwardly while you are walking or running, so that you almost fall Synonym : trip:
In her hurry, she stumbled and spilled the milk all over the floor.
stumble over/on
Vic stumbled over the step as he came in.

2. to walk in an unsteady way and often almost fall Synonym : stagger
stumble in/out/across etc
He stumbled upstairs and into bed.

3. to stop or make a mistake when you are reading to people or speaking
stumble over/at/through
I hope I don’t stumble over any of the long words.
—stumble noun [countable]

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

stumble
verb
ADV. almost, nearly | a little, slightly She stumbled a little on the uneven path.
blindly He stumbled blindly on through the dark building.
about, along, around, away, back, backwards, forward, on, out
PREP. against, along, down, from, into, out of, over, towards, etc. They stumbled over the ploughed field.
PHRASES stumble to your feet The train stopped, and several passengers stumbled to their feet.
PHRASAL VERBS stumble across/on/upon sth
ADV. accidentally, by chance, unwittingly I stumbled across the place quite by chance.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

fall (also fall over, fall down) to suddenly go down onto the floor when standing, walking, or running:
She fell on the stairs and broke her ankle.
Children are always falling over.
trip on/over something to fall or almost fall when you hit your foot against something:
Someone might trip over those toys.
I tripped on a piece of wood.
slip to fall or almost fall when you are walking on a wet or very smooth surface:
She slipped and hurt her ankle.
I was scared I would slip on the highly polished floor.
stumble to almost fall when you put your foot down in an awkward way:
He stumbled and almost fell.
One of our porters stumbled on the rough ground.
collapse to fall suddenly and heavily to the ground, especially when you become unconscious:
One of the runners collapsed halfway through the race.
lose your balance to become unsteady so that you start to fall over:
She lost her balance on the first step and fell down the stairs.
Have something to hold onto, in case you lose your balance.
fall flat on your face to fall forwards so you are lying on your front on the ground:
She fell flat on her face getting out of the car.
decrease used when the number, amount, or level of something becomes less than it used to be:
There has been a significant decrease in the number of deaths from lung cancer.
a 5% decrease in housing prices
reduction used when the price, amount, or level of something is made lower:
There will be further price reductions in the sales.
A small reduction in costs can mean a large increase in profits.
cut used when a government or company reduces the price, amount, or level of something:
a 1% cut in interest rates
tax cuts
It is possible that there will be further job cuts.
drop/fall used when the number, amount, or level of something goes down, especially by a large amount:
The figures showed a sharp fall in industrial output.
There was a dramatic drop in temperature.
decline used when the number, amount, level, or standard of something goes down, especially gradually:
During the 1970s, there was a gradual decline in the birthrate.
a decline in educational standards

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲