[f. STUMBLING vbl. sb.
Introduced by Tindale as a rendering of Gr. πρόσκομμα; later translators have preferred to use it to render σκάνδαλον. The phrase ‘to stumble at a block’ (i.e., a tree stump) is of earlier date: see quot. c. 1450 under STUMBLE v. 1 b. Cf. stumbling-stock, stone (STUMBLING vbl. sb. b).]
Something to stumble at or over; a cause of stumbling. Chiefly fig.
a. An occasion of moral stumbling; a ‘scandal,’ ‘offence.’
1526. Tindale, Rom. xiv. 13. That no man putt a stomblinge blocke or an occasion to faule [Gr. πρόσκομμα ἤ σκάνδαλον] in his brothers waye.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Pref. Ee iij b. It wyll none otherwyse be, but that some stumblyng blokkys wyll allway be by malycyouse folke layed in good peoples way.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xii. 58. All which doings, or sayings … be stumbling blocks, that make men to fall in the way of Religion.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 489. To unite a scattered flock in one fold under one shepherd, to remove stumbling blocks from the path of the weak,… these were objects which might well justify some modification … of national or provincial usages.
1884. J. Hall, Chr. Home, xi. 166. If meat be a stumbling-block to a brother, then ill he forego it (1 Cor. viii. 13).
b. An occasion of falling into calamity or ruin.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. iii. 20. Yf a rightuous man go from his rightuousnesse,… I will laye a stomblinge blocke before him, and he shall dye.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VIII. 247. Be upon your guard against this stumbling-block of heroes.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xvi. We are not men to be trodden on…; those who have attempted it have found us stumbling-blocks.
c. An obstacle to belief or understanding; something repugnant to one’s prejudices.
a. 1593. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, IV. i. (Brooke), 1093. I see Æneas sticketh in your minde, But I will soone put by that stumbling-blocke.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, 271. Unless I here remove a seeming obstruction or stumbling block, perhaps some mistakes or errours might arise.
1714. Addison, Spect., No. 592, ¶ 7. A Stumbling-Block to the whole Tribe of these rigid Criticks.
1721. Waterland, Case Arian-Subscr., 32. The old Arians would have detested such Practises: The Ὁμούσιον alone was such a Stumbling-Block to Them, that They could never get over it.
1857. Keble, Euchar. Ador., 20. A most effectual stumbling block to those who were unwilling to believe.
1864. Bowen, Logic, vii. 204. Baroko and Bokardo have been stumbling-blocks to the logicians.
1884. F. Temple, Relat. Relig. & Sci., viii. (1885), 244. Believers have thus prepared a stumblingblock for themselves.
d. An obstacle in the way of progress, or of the execution of a plan.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. ii. 64. Were I a Man, a Duke, and next of blood, I would remoue these tedious stumbling blockes.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), III. 398. I have heard that there are the greatest endeavours to put some obstruction in this business. Dutch and Dane are not wanting to lay stumbling-blocks.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vii. 354. Such a discovery might have been a stumblingblock in the way of Christianity.
1838. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., I. 194. Nor did he ever quit his religion, though as a Hugonot it might have proved a great stumbling-block in his way.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xiii. 143. She … had come to fear that she might be an embargo on his prosperity, and a stumbling-block in the way of his success.
1912. Nature, 21 Nov., 346/1. The cost of electrical power is the chief stumbling-block to the introduction of the manufacture on a large scale in this country.
e. In literal sense, rare. Also attrib.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 21. A good Surveyour shuns also the ordering of Doores with Stumbling-Block-Thresholds.
1893. Law Times, XCV. 204/2. The cover projected about 11/2 in. above the level of the road, and so formed a stumbling-block.
transf. 1859. Herschel, Fam. Lect. Sci. Subj., iii. § 31 (1866), 119. Jupiter, in fact, is a regular stumbling-block in the way of comets.
