1
as in trotting
to go at a pace faster than a walk
went tripping up the steps of city hall in their eagerness to get married
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stumbling
to go down from an upright position suddenly and involuntarily
tripped over a chair and landed on her face
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in hopping
to move with a light springing step
dancers tripping lightly across the stage
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in traveling
to take a trip especially of some distance
while he was growing up, the family tripped to New England every summer
Synonyms & Similar Words
5
as in fumbling
to make a mistake
the press has had it in for the new governor, and they are just waiting for her to trip
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tripping
Cognitive Mercury and upbeat Jupiter are tripping over one another, potentially impacting your day-to-day routine or plans with your friends.
—
Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 30 Jan. 2026
There should never be too many things piled up in a home, especially next to points of exit and entry, which could be a tripping hazard.
—Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 30 Jan. 2026
Reviewers say that this model’s eco mode outputs just the right amount of heat without tripping your breaker.
—Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 23 Jan. 2026
The operators likely see green lights and stable voltage readings on their screens even as transformers are overloading and breakers are tripping in the physical world.
—Saman Zonouz, The Conversation, 22 Jan. 2026
This means there are no cords for the patient to risk tripping over, and the alarm will still work in the event of power loss.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2026
Terrified riders lunged from their seats, dove to the ground, and began screaming and tripping over one another.
—Literary Hub, 21 Jan. 2026
In that case, the burglars entered through a bedroom window but fled after tripping an alarm, police said.
—City News Service, Daily News, 21 Jan. 2026
The operators likely see green lights and stable voltage readings on their screens even as transformers are overloading and breakers are tripping in the physical world.
—Saman Zonouz, Fortune, 21 Jan. 2026
Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 30 Jan. 2026
There should never be too many things piled up in a home, especially next to points of exit and entry, which could be a tripping hazard.
—Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 30 Jan. 2026
Reviewers say that this model’s eco mode outputs just the right amount of heat without tripping your breaker.
—Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 23 Jan. 2026
The operators likely see green lights and stable voltage readings on their screens even as transformers are overloading and breakers are tripping in the physical world.
—Saman Zonouz, The Conversation, 22 Jan. 2026
This means there are no cords for the patient to risk tripping over, and the alarm will still work in the event of power loss.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2026
Terrified riders lunged from their seats, dove to the ground, and began screaming and tripping over one another.
—Literary Hub, 21 Jan. 2026
In that case, the burglars entered through a bedroom window but fled after tripping an alarm, police said.
—City News Service, Daily News, 21 Jan. 2026
The operators likely see green lights and stable voltage readings on their screens even as transformers are overloading and breakers are tripping in the physical world.
—Saman Zonouz, Fortune, 21 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tripping
Verb
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The area is so nationally notorious that the Border Patrol chose it to stage an invasion here in July, complete with a literal cavalry of agents trotting down a soccer field where kids usually play while National Guard troops sat inside armored Humvees on Wilshire Boulevard.—
Gustavo Arellano,
Los Angeles Times,
22 Jan. 2026
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Starring Evan Peters, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Pope, Anthony Ramos and Ashton Kutcher, The Beauty explores the secret, privileged and dark realms of vanity and perfection-seeking within a globe-trotting crime thriller backdrop.—
Jeff Conway,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The committee is already split between those worried about persistent inflation, who’d like to keep rates unchanged, and those who think that recent upticks in unemployment point to a stumbling economy that needs lower interest rates to bolster hiring.—
Christopher Rugaber,
Fortune,
31 Jan. 2026
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Years of decline have reduced Tottenham — one of the wealthiest clubs on the planet — to a place where the collective mood of the fanbase is at least somewhat conditioned by Arsenal stumbling again.—
Dan Kilpatrick,
New York Times,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Fluorescence rippled across the bed of astrocytes in waves, hopping from one cell to the next.—
Ingrid Wickelgren,
Quanta Magazine,
30 Jan. 2026
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In The Beauty, Ryan Murphy and co-creator Matthew Hodgson have concocted a genre-hopping oddity that sounds unlikely to work.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For Ty Dolla Sign, the perfect Sunday begins in the sky, traveling back to Los Angeles from wherever his career has last taken him.—
Kailyn Brown,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Jan. 2026
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The driverless Waymo, which was traveling at 17 miles per hour, quickly hit the brakes and collided with the child at a speed of roughly 6 miles per hour (Waymo claimed in its blog post that a human driver in the same situation would have only had time to slow to 14 mph).—
Alexei Oreskovic,
Fortune,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Yet, as any visitor stalled in traffic or fumbling for cash to top up a transit card discovers, the old Seoul persists beneath the new.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
25 Jan. 2026
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What to know about the Patriots-Texans game Despite three turnovers and Drake Maye fumbling four times, the Patriots held on to beat the Houston Texans, 28-16.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
18 Jan. 2026
Verb
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With a dust and waterproof rating of IP57, the earbuds can also shrug off moisture and sweat, whether jogging in the rain or enduring a punishing workout.—
Mark Sparrow,
Forbes.com,
30 Jan. 2026
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But commenters were also fascinated by a series of colorful graphs plotting dose-response curves for individual types of exercise, purporting to show that walking is the best, jogging is good but not too much, swimming is no good at all, and so on.—
Alex Hutchinson,
Outside,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The 83-year-old senator has had multiple health issues over the past few years, including publicly freezing during a press conference in 2023 and falling ahead of a Senate vote in October 2025.—
Lillian Metzmeier,
Louisville Courier Journal,
4 Feb. 2026
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Among the videos, prosecutors wrote, is one that shows the bullet hitting Kirk, blood coming from his neck and Kirk falling from his chair.—
Matthew Brown,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The lawsuit alleges the day care left the infant unattended in a bouncing chair and was severely injured by an older child.—
Maria Salette Ontiveros,
Dallas Morning News,
24 Jan. 2026
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Garrett is a fun and lively boy with a big personality who loves bouncing on the trampoline and playing outdoors.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
21 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tripping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tripping. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
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