TUMBLING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tumbling

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/tˈəmbəlɪŋ/ /tˈəmblɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Tumble v. t.

To turn over; to turn or throw about, as for examination or search; to roll or move in a rough, coarse, or unceremonious manner; to throw down or headlong; to precipitate; sometimes with over, about, etc.; as, to tumble books or papers.

To disturb; to rumple; as, to tumble a bed.

Tumble v. i. (past & past part. tumbled; pres. part. tumbling)

To roll over, or to and fro; to throw one's self about; as, a person in pain tumbles and tosses.

To roll down; to fall suddenly and violently; to be precipitated; as, to tumble from a scaffold. "He who tumbles from a tower surely has a greater blow than he who slides from a molehill."

To play tricks by various movements and contortions of the body; to perform the feats of an acrobat.

To tumble home (Naut.), to incline inward, as the sides of a vessel, above the bends or extreme breadth; used esp. in the phrase tumbling home. Cf. Wall-sided.

adjective

Tumbling adj. A. & vb. n. from Tumble, v.

Tumbling barrel. Same as Rumble, n., 4.

Tumbling bay, an overfall, or weir, in a canal.

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Etymology of 'Tumbling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tumbling" Quotes from Famous Books

... faster than ever, and as Jack Jeens held a guttering tallow candle over the sleeper's face, "Poor little chap," he said, smiling. "Why, if I get tumbling into bed it'll wake him up, and I won't ...

— The Powder Monkey • George Manville Fenn

... This appearance was no doubt superficial; and the beau-monde is never so numerous as its conspicuousness leads one to imagine. When the rumblings of the Revolutionary earthquake began to make themselves heard in earnest, the gingerbread aristocracy came tumbling down in a hurry, and the old, invincible spirit, temporarily screened by the waving of scented handkerchiefs, the flutter of fans, and the swish of hoop-skirts, made itself once more manifest and dominant. But that epoch was still far off; for the present court was paid to ...

— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... the strong-lunged Cogoran could wind his horn, the hearts of all the company grew numb with fear as across the water the low, clear strains of a warning-song sounded from the haunted gray-stone,—the mystic rock of Carrick-lee, that overhung the tumbling rapids: ...

— Historic Boys - Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times • Elbridge Streeter Brooks

... imminent risk of tumbling off her platform, she bent low down to reach under the table for the blue cloth which covered her store of rotten apples, snatched it off, and waved it with frantic enthusiasm, as though her elderly heart had suddenly gone forth to the very man for whom a moment ago she ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... moans and sobs broke the silence which succeeded to this tempestuous outburst, till suddenly a shrieking figure came tumbling into the room and, with hair unbound and garments disarranged, fairly rolled ...

— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

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