stumble across/on/uponsomething/someone
phrasal verbwithstumbleverbuk/ˈstʌm.bəl/us/ˈstʌm.bəl/
C2
todiscoversomething bychance, or tomeetsomeone bychance:
Workmenstumbledupon themosaicwhilediggingfoundationsfor a newbuilding.
to find someone or something
- findI've looked everywhere for my keys but can't find them.
- discoverThe missing wallet was discovered under the chair.
- locatePolice are still trying to locate the suspect.
- uncoverReporters uncovered evidence of corruption.
- unearthOur investigation unearthed mountains of evidence that implicated the city.
- come acrossWe came across a lovely little restaurant in the village.
Finding and discovering
- a fishing expeditionidiom
- ascertain
- break (fresh/new) groundidiom
- breakthrough
- bringsomethingto lightidiom
- catchsomeonered-handedidiom
- finding
- flushsomeone/somethingout
- fossick
- found
- pinpoint
- pull
- putsomeoneontosomething
- putyourfinger onsomethingidiom
- rake
- rakesomethingout
- red-handed
- rumble
- sniff
- uncover