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stumble across
Also, stumble on. Find by chance, discover or meet with unexpectedly. For example, When we were hiking up the mountain we stumbled across a few abandoned shepherd's huts, or At the flea market Alfred stumbled on a quite valuable old lithograph. This idiom uses stumble in the sense of “accidentally trip.” [Mid-1500s]
Example Sentences
Once Ellie and Dina stumble across a cluster of massacred men, women and children in a Washington state forest, the righteousness of their mission grows clearer.
“And if you go there, you’re not going to know that unless you stumble across these two buildings and then learn the story, because everything, with the exception of these two buildings, has been cleared away.”
Remarkably few of these old-world venues remain in circulation — there are only a handful in America — although they are much revered in Europe, where it is much more common to stumble across one.
“I often fantasized that one day my dad would stumble across my face on a magazine cover and be overcome with regret for not getting to know such a wonderful girl,” writes Ione Skye.
The young guard appears to have had the misfortune to stumble across an undercover Israeli operation, during which he was shot and killed.
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