[f. STUMBLE v. + -ER1.]
1. One who, or something that stumbles; esp. a horse that is given to stumbling.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 481/1. Stumlere (or stomelare) cespitator.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 150. Stumble at a strawe, and leape ouer a blocke, Such stumblers are blockeheads.
1613. Uncasing of Machiav., 26. Riding a stumbler hold fast the bridle.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Ch. Porch, xxxvi. A stumbler stumbles least in rugged way.
1796. Coleridge, To an Infant, 5. Poor stumbler on the rocky coast of Woe.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. liv. 124. The horses were all sad stumblers.
1894. Meredith, Foresight & Patience, Poet. Wks. (1912), 418. Yet, happy, for us when, their cause defined, They walk no longer with a stumbler blind.
2. A cause of stumbling; a ‘poser.’
1863. P. Davidson, Pentateuch Vind., ii. 33. Here was a stumbler for the priests and a marrowbone for the infidels.
