TUMBLING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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.

See images of 'Tumbling'

Etymology of 'Tumbling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tumbling" Quotes from Famous Books

... of your starry eyes, Your lips that seem on roses fed, Your breasts, where Cupid tumbling lies, Nor sleeps for kissing of ...

— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various

... picturesque effect. The cemetery in all Turkish towns is a favourite place of public resort, but I cannot say that it is kept in very nice order, as a rule. For the sake of a water-colour sketch I made in one, I was very glad that the upright headstones were tumbling about in all directions, it took away the look of stiffness and monotony; but I am bound to say that the graves looked neglected as well as picturesque. The cemetery at Pera had too much refuse, and too many cocks, hens, and dogs in it. It looked very pretty, however, from my windows, ...

— Miscellanea • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... roar of cannon seemed to tear their ear-drums—another—and another—everywhere about them. With one mind five hundred imaginative workmen dropped their weapons from nerveless hands and fled, bumping, tumbling, fighting each other. A voiceless flow of chaotic clamour marked their course toward ...

— The Return of Blue Pete • Luke Allan

... on forever, overwhelmed Petter Nord with reproaches, killed him with curses; but the latter tore himself away and ran, as if an earthquake had shaken the town and all the houses were tumbling down. ...

— Invisible Links • Selma Lagerlof

... children may be seen setting out towards the woods to gather green boughs. After dipping these in water they return home in triumph and place them before the doors of those who were not 'up with the lark' in such a manner that, when these long sleepers open them, the wet green boughs will come tumbling down upon their heads. Very often, too, the children pursue the late risers, and beat them with the branches, jeering at them the while, and singing about the laziness of the sluggard. These old songs have undergone very many variations, and nowadays one ...

— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough

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