Stumble vs Fumble - What's the difference?
stumble | fumble |
A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
An error or blunder.
A clumsy walk.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
* Sir Walter Scott
*
, title= To make a mistake or have trouble.
To cause to stumble or trip.
(figurative) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
* Milton
* John Locke
To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on'', ''upon'', or ''against .
* Dryden
* C. Smart
(intransitive) To idly touch or nervously handle
* {{quote-news
, year=2010
, date=December 28
, author=Owen Phillips
, title=Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool
, work=BBC
(intransitive) To grope awkwardly in trying to find something
* Fielding
To blunder uncertainly.
To grope about in perplexity; to seek awkwardly.
* Chesterfield
* Wordsworth
(transitive, intransitive, sports) To drop a ball or a baton etc.
To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over.
* Shakespeare
Fumble is a synonym of stumble.
In intransitive terms the difference between stumble and fumble
is that stumble is to make a mistake or have trouble while fumble is to blunder uncertainly.stumble
English
Noun
(en noun)The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
Synonyms
* (a blunder) blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, thinko * See alsoVerb
(stumbl)- He stumbled up the dark avenue.
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.}}
- False and dazzling fires to stumble men.
- One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis.
- Ovid stumbled , by some inadvertency, upon Livia in a bath.
- Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.
Derived terms
* * * *See also
*Anagrams
*fumble
English
Verb
(fumbl)- Waiting for the interview, he fumbled with his tie.
- He fumbled the key into the lock.
citation, page= , passage=Henderson's best strike on goal saw goalkeeper Kingson uncomfortably fumble his measured shot around the post.}}
- He fumbled for his keys.
- He fumbled his way to the light-switch.
- Adams now began to fumble in his pockets.
- He fumbled through his prepared speech.
- to fumble for an excuse
- My understanding flutters and my memory fumbles .
- Alas! how he fumbles about the domains.
- I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers.