tumble
/ˈtʌmbl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A fall, especially end over end.
noun
A disorderly heap.
Example Sentences
- "I took a tumble down the stairs and broke my tooth."
- "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."
- "Wouldn't it be jolly now, / To take our Aertex panters off / And have a jolly tumble in / The jolly, jolly sun?"
- "When you've just had a tumble between the sheets and are feeling rumpled and lazy, she may want to get up so she can make the bed."
- "He who tumbles from a tower surely has a greater blow than he who slides from a molehill."
- "Jack and Gill Went up the hill, To fetch a bottle of water; Jack fell down, And broke his crown, And Gill came tumbling a'ter."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *tūmōną Proto-West Germanic *tumbōn Old English tumbiander. Middle English tumben Middle English tumblen English tumble From Middle English tumblen (“to fall over and over again, tumble”), frequentative of Middle English tumben (“to fall, leap, dance”), from Old English tumbian, from Proto-West Germanic *tumbōn, tūmōn, from Proto-Germanic *tumbōną, tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”). Cognate with Middle Dutch tumelen (whence Dutch tuimelen), Middle Low German tumelen, tummelen, German taumeln, Danish tumle, Swedish tumla, tumbla (“to tumble”), Faroese tumla, tumbla (“to walk heavily and noisily, stagger”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: tumblen, tumben, tumbian, *tūmōn, *tūmōną
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Synonyms
bump uglies
have sex
roll around
approach
cohabit
common
company
copulate
couple
engage in sex
exchange flesh
have intimate relations