释义 |
stumbling /ˈstʌmb(ə)lɪŋ /adjective1Tripping or losing balance while walking; moving with difficulty: they began their stumbling walk home I took a stumbling step backwards...- She mutters something and takes a few stumbling paces back into the crowd.
- The barrister heard stumbling footsteps coming up the stairs.
- He tripped, managed a few more stumbling strides, and then collapsed onto the dirt road.
1.1Making repeated mistakes, especially in speech: his uncertain and stumbling choice of words Mike’s stumbling pursuit of success...- After the stumbling progress of the last four years, we need a firm hand and a solid commitment that a safe, major company would bring.
- It was a few stumbling sentences—the poorest possible effort on an occasion when he should have produced the finest speech of his life.
- It's a sharp, witty comedy about the stumbling speeches made by best men at weddings and all the struggle the writers may have to compose them.
Derivatives stumblingly /ˈstʌmb(ə)lɪŋli/ adverb ...- He stumblingly confesses that he does not have a licence to cut down the trees.
- When Charles stumblingly asks her out, she makes the most of it.
- Was France trapped in a cycle of monarchy, republic, and empire, or did it advance stumblingly towards stability?
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