tumble
pronunciation
How to pronounce tumble in British English:
UK [ˈtʌmbl]
How to pronounce tumble in American English:
US [ˈtʌmbl]
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- Noun:
- an acrobatic feat of rolling or turning end over end
- a sudden drop from an upright position
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- Verb:
- fall down, as if collapsing
- cause to topple or tumble by pushing
- roll over and over, back and forth
- fly around
- fall apart
- throw together in a confused mass
- understand, usually after some initial difficulty
- fall suddenly and sharply
- put clothes in a tumbling barrel, where they are whirled about in hot air, usually with the purpose of drying
- suffer a sudden downfall, overthrow, or defeat
- do gymnastics, roll and turn skillfully
Word Origin
- tumble
- tumble: [13] Tumble was borrowed from Middle Low German tummelen, which has other relatives in modern German tummeln ‘bustle, hurry’ and taumeln ‘reel, stagger’. All were formed from a base that also found its way into the Romance languages, producing French tomber ‘fall’ (source of English tumbrel [14], which in Old French denoted a ‘chute’ or ‘cart that could be tipped up’) and Italian tombolare ‘tumble, turn somersaults’ (source of English tombola [19]).The derivative tumbler [14] originally denoted an ‘acrobat’; the application to a ‘drinking glass’, which emerged in the mid 17th century, comes from the fact that such glasses were originally made with rounded bottoms, so that they could not be put down until they were empty.=> tombola
- tumble (n.)
- "accidental fall," 1716, from tumble (v.). Earlier as "disorder, confusion" (1630s).
- tumble (v.)
- c. 1300, "to perform as an acrobat," also "to fall down," perhaps from a frequentative form of Old English tumbian "dance about, tumble, leap." This is of unknown origin but apparently related to Middle Low German tummelen "to turn, dance," Dutch tuimelen "to tumble," Old High German tumon, German taumeln "to turn, reel." Transitive sense from late 14c. Related: Tumbled; tumbling.
Example
- 1. Many companies are mothballing mines and curtailing exploration to conserve cash as prices tumble .
- 2. A credit crunch or recession could cause house prices to tumble in many more countries .
- 3. This week 's falls in equities and commodities have stopped just as they threatened to turn into a significant tumble .
- 4. Such funds can act as insurance policies , costing investors a bit when markets are raging but bailing them out when stocks tumble .
- 5. Chinese steel executives feel particularly aggrieved because they agreed last year to an increase of up to 97 percent and then watched prices tumble with the global economy .