tumble

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   put clothes in a tumbling barrel, where they are whirled about in hot air, usually with the purpose of drying

   Wash in warm water and tumble dry

2. 2
   verb

   fall suddenly and sharply

   Prices tumbled after the devaluation of the currency

3. 3
   verb

   throw together in a confused mass

   They tumbled the teams with no apparent pattern

4. 4
   verb

   fall down, as if collapsing

   The tower of the World Trade Center tumbled after the plane hit it

5. 5
   verb

   fly around

   The clothes tumbled in the dryer

6. 6
   noun

   A fall, especially end over end.

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

7. 7
   noun

   A disorderly heap.

   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.

8. 8
   noun

   An act of sexual intercourse.

   Wouldn't it be jolly now, / To take our Aertex panters off / And have a jolly tumble in / The jolly, jolly sun?

Etymology

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.