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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
STUMBLE, v.i. [This word is probably from a root that signifies to stop or to strike, and may be allied to stammer.]
STUMBLE, v.t.
STUMBLE, n.
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. To walk in an unsteady or clumsy
manner.
He stumbled up the dark avenue. Sir W. Scott. 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. 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, To cause to stumble or trip.
Fig.: To mislead; to confound; to perplex;
to cause to err or to fall.
False and dazzling fires to stumble men. Milton. One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis. Locke. A
trip in walking or running.
A blunder; a failure; a fall from
rectitude.
One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life. L'Estrange. | ||||||||