almost tripped over

[WilliamTaft]

An example sentence using "trip" in Longman Advanced American Dictionary(retired): He almost tripped over the dog.

Does "almost" mean "almost fell?" Did the man hit the dog with his foot or not?

 

[Tarheel]

What does "almost tripped" mean?

 

[WilliamTaft]

What does "almost tripped" mean?

Thank you, Tarheel. And sorry, I don't understand.

 

[probus]

Without more context we can't be sure whether his foot touched the dog or not. All we know is that he failed to notice the dog and passed close enough to it that he might easily have tripped over it.

 

[Tarheel]

Thank you, Tarheel. And sorry, I don't understand.

When you trip over something you stumble because you are thrown off-balance. (You might or you might not fall.)

 

[emsr2d2]

We don't know and it doesn't really matter. He either came close to the dog and almost touched it with his foot (if he had touched it, it would have caused him to lose balance and fall), or his foot touched the dog and put him slightly off balance but he managed to regain his balance and didn't fall. All we need to know is that he didn't fall and a dog was somewhere quite close to him when it happened/didn't happen.

If you need to be absolutely clear, you'll need to refer to the tripping over and the falling as two separate entities.

He tripped over the dog and fell flat on his face on the floor.
He tripped over the dog but managed to avoid falling to the ground.