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.