Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for TUM'BLE
TUM'BLE, v.i. [Sax. tumbian, to tumble, to dance; Sw. tumla, to fall, to tumble; Dan. tumler, to shake, toss, reel, tumble; Fr. tomber; Sp. tumbar, to tumble, roll, keel, as a ship, to throw down; tumba, a tomb, a vault, a tumble or fall; L. tumulus, tumultus, tumeo; It. tomare, to fall; tombolare, to tumble; W. twmp, a hillock; G. taumeln, to reel.]
- To roll; to roll about by turning one way and the other; as, a person in pain tumbles and tosses. Shak.
- To fall; to come down suddenly and violently; as, to tumble from a scaffold.
- To roll down. The stone of Sisyphus is said to have tumbled to the bottom, as soon as it was carried up the hill. Addison.
- To play mountebank tricks. Rowe.
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