stumble upon

English

Verb

stumble upon (third-person singular simple present stumbles upon, present participle stumbling upon, simple past and past participle stumbled upon)

1. (figuratively) To discover or find something by accident.
   • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35:

     Underneath a black cliff where the incoming tide smashed on the shingle, they stumbled upon the mail hood of Hrothgar's murdered vassal.

   • 2016 January 31, “Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?”, in Vanity Fair, retrieved 21 January 2016:

     During the course of his looking into Abedin’s S.G.E. status, the senator stumbled upon an O.I.G. “criminal” inquiry, commenced in October 2013, about whether Abedin knowingly got paid for hours she did not work while she was on vacation and maternity leave.

2. (figuratively) To meet somebody by chance.

Synonyms

• come across
• come upon
• stumble across
• stumble on

Translations

to come across by accident; to discover by accident

• Arabic: عَثَرَ (ʕaṯara)
• Catalan: ensopegar amb
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遇到 (zh) (yùdào)

• Danish: falde over, støde tilfældigt på
• Finnish: törmätä (fi), löytää sattumalta
• French: tomber sur
• German: stolpern (de)
• Hungarian: ráakad (hu), rábukkan (hu), belebotlik (hu)
• Italian: imbattersi (it)
• Norwegian: snuble over
• Polish: natrafiać impf, natrafić pf, natykać się impf, natknąć się pf, napotykać (pl) impf, napotkać (pl) pf, wpadać (pl) impf, wpaść (pl) pf
• Portuguese: tropeçar (pt)
• Russian: натыка́ться (ru) impf (natykátʹsja), наткну́ться (ru) pf (natknútʹsja)
• Spanish: toparse con, darse de bruces
• Ukrainian: натрапля́ти impf (natrapljáty), натра́пити pf (natrápyty), натика́тися impf (natykátysja), наткну́тися pf (natknútysja), нашто́вхуватися impf (naštóvxuvatysja), наштовхну́тися pf (naštovxnútysja)