tumble
Pronunciation
  • enPR: tŭmʹbəl, IPA: /ˈtʌmbl̩/
Noun

tumble (plural tumbles)

  1. A fall, especially end over end.
    I took a tumble down the stairs and broke my tooth.
  2. A disorderly heap.
    • 2008, David Joutras, A Ghost in the World (page 55)
      When at last we stopped in a tumble of bodies on the grass, laughing, and in Dad's case, out of breath, we were like little kids (I mean 5 or 6! After all I am 12!) at the end of a playground session.
  3. (informal) An act of sexual intercourse.
    • , John Betjeman, Group Life: Letchworth
      Wouldn't it be jolly now, / To take our Aertex panters off / And have a jolly tumble in / The jolly, jolly sun?
Translations Verb

tumble (tumbles, present participle tumbling; past and past participle tumbled)

  1. (intransitive) To fall end over end; to roll.
    • He who tumbles from a tower surely has a greater blow than he who slides from a molehill.
    • , Robert W. Chambers, The Younger Set
      “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
  2. (intransitive) To perform gymnastics such as somersaults, rolls, and handsprings.
  3. (intransitive) To roll over and over.
  4. (intransitive) To drop rapidly.
    Share prices tumbled after the revelation about the company's impending failure.
  5. (intransitive, informal) To have sexual intercourse.
  6. (transitive) To smooth and polish a rough surface on relatively small parts.
  7. To muss, to make disorderly; to tousle or rumple.
    to tumble a bed
  8. (colloquial) To suddenly realise, to get wind of.
  9. (cryptocurrency) To obscure the audit trail of funds by means of a tumbler.
Synonyms Translations Translations


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