different between reel vs stumble

English

Etymology

From Middle English reel, reele, from Old English r?ol, hr?ol, from Proto-Germanic *hrehulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“to weave, beat”). Cognate with Icelandic ræl, hræl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?l/
• Homophone: real (some accents)
• Rhymes: -i?l

Noun

reel (plural reels)

1. A shaky or unsteady gait.
   • 2010, Andrew Koppelman, The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law (page 92)

     Doubtless the present game of chess was developed through just such fiddling; perhaps someone once thought that the drunken reel of the knight was hostile to the essence of Chess.

2. A lively dance originating in Scotland; also, the music of this dance; often called a Scottish (or Scotch) reel.
3. A kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound.

   a log reel, used by seamen

   an angler's reel

   a garden reel

   nudge the fruit machine reel

4. (textiles) A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, —-- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of McElrath to this entry?)

5. (agriculture) A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.
6. (film) A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry.

   Synonym: showreel

Derived terms

• hose reel, hosereel
• newsreel

Translations

Verb

reel (third-person singular simple present reels, present participle reeling, simple past and past participle reeled)

1. To wind on a reel.
2. To spin or revolve repeatedly.
3. To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.

   He reeled off some tape from the roll and sealed the package.

4. To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     the wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, Virago Press, paperback edition, page 111

     Sarah reels a little, nevertheless, under the dog's boisterous greeting.

5. (with back) To back off or step away unsteadily and quickly.

   He reeled back from the punch.

6. To make or cause to reel.
7. To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.

   • In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled.

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xi:

     The high school had a send-off in my honour. It was an uncommon thing for a young man of Rajkot to go to England. I had written out a few words of thanks. But I could scarcely stammer them out. I remember how my head reeled and how my whole frame shook as I stood up to read them.

8. To be in shock.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[2]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     New Jersey was reeling on Wednesday from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has caused catastrophic flooding here in Hoboken and in other New York City suburbs, destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.

9. To produce a mechanical insect-like song, as in grass warblers.
10. (obsolete) To roll.

Derived terms

• reel in
• reel off

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Erle, LREE, leer

Atong (India)

Etymology

Borrowed from English rail, from Middle English rail, rayl, partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re?l/

Noun

reel (Bengali script ????)

1. rains
2. train
3. stud (of a fence)

References

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.

Danish

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French réel (“real”), from Medieval Latin re?lis (“actual”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??l/, [????l?], [?e??l?]

Adjective

reel

1. real, proper
2. reliable, trustworthy, honest (about a person)

Inflection

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English reel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ri?l/, [?i??l], [?i?l], [?i?l]

Noun

reel c (singular definite reelen, plural indefinite reeler)

1. (dance) reel

Inflection

English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stam- (“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”), thereby related to German stumm (“mute”), Dutch stom (“dumb”). Doublet of stammer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st?mb?l/
• Rhymes: -?mb?l

Noun

stumble (plural stumbles)

1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
2. An error or blunder.
3. A clumsy walk.

Synonyms

• (a blunder): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, thinko
• See also Thesaurus:error

Translations

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.

2. (intransitive) To make a mistake or have trouble.

3. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
   • One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis.

5. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
   • 1680, John Dryden, Ovid's Epistles

     He [Ovid] had stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon the privacies of Livia […] in a bath.

   • 1754, Christopher Smart, Snake

     Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.

Derived terms

• stumble across
• stumble against
• stumble on
• stumble upon

Translations

See also

• stumbling block

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “stumble”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• tumbles