tumble

CEFRB2

/ˈtʌmbl̩/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To fall or roll suddenly and awkwardly.

  2. 02

    noun

    A sudden fall or rolling movement.

Examples

  • I saw a girl tumble and ran to her in spite of myself.

  • The typhoon caused a tree to tumble on my yard.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. A disorderly heap.

  2. An act of sexual intercourse.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A fall, especially end over end.

More examples

In context

  • I took a tumble down the stairs and broke my tooth.

  • Share prices tumbled after the revelation about the company's impending failure.

  • to tumble a bed

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The child slipped on the wet floor and began to blank down the stairs.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”). Cognate with Middle Dutch tumelen (whence Dutch tuimelen), Middle Low German tumelen, tummelen, German taumeln and Danish tumle.