[-ING2.] That stumbles, in various senses of the verb.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 1042. [Avaricia loquitur:] Þerfore, Pryde, good broþyr,… late Iche of vs take at othyr, & set Mankynde on a stomlynge stol.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Suffossus equus, a stumblynge horse.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., May, 231. Her stombling steppe somewhat her amazed.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 383/1. Confragosus locus,… a rough, rugged, rockie or stumbling ground: vphill and downehill.
1727. Country-Post, xi. in Swift’s Miscell., II. 290. There have died of the falling Sickness two stumbling Horses, as also one of their Riders.
1859. Dickens, etc., Haunted Ho., vii. 42/2. Then she heard him … go down stairs, with hurried, stumbling steps.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, xv. 372. The tearful, stumbling speeches of dear papa’ after champagne [at the wedding breakfast].
a. 1893. Christina G. Rossetti, Poems (1904), 209/1. Is there a path to Heaven My stumbling foot may trend?
1905. Sir F. Treves, Other Side of Lantern, II. xxvii. (1906), 164. Everywhere is the figure of the devout offering his stumbling prayer.
