stumble: [14] Stumble was probably borrowed from an unrecorded Old Norse *stumla. This would have come, along with its first cousin stumra ‘trip’, from a prehistoric Germanic base *stum-, *stam- ‘check, impede’, which also produced English stammer and stem ‘halt, check’. => stammer, stem
stumble (v.)
c. 1300, "to trip or miss one's footing" (physically or morally), probably from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Norwegian stumla, Swedish stambla "to stumble"), probably from a variant of the Proto-Germanic base *stam-, source of Old English stamerian "to stammer," German stumm, Dutch stom "dumb, silent." Possibly influenced in form by stumpen "to stumble," but the -b- may be purely euphonious. Meaning "to come (upon) by chance" is attested from 1550s. Related: Stumbled; stumbling. Stumbling-block first recorded 1526 (Tindale), used in Rom. xiv:13, where usually it translates Greek skandalon.
stumble (n.)
1540s, "act of stumbling," from stumble (v.). Meaning "a failure, false step" is from 1640s.
实用例句
1. They stumble across a ghost town inhabited by a rascally gold prospector.
他们偶然来到一个居住着一位狡诈的淘金者的废墟之城。
来自柯林斯例句
2. As he drew abreast of the man he pretended to stumble.
当他赶上那个男人时，他装出了要跌倒的样子。
来自柯林斯例句
3. I make it into the darkness with only one stumble.
我只是绊了一下，周围就变成了一片黑暗。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The sudden weakness in her legs made her stumble.
她突然两腿发软踉跄了一下。
来自《权威词典》
5. Stagger and stumble suggest unsteady or uncontrolledmovement.
