Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.]

1. To roll; to roll about by turning one way and the other; as, a person in pain tumbles and tosses. Shak.
2. To fall; to come down suddenly and violently; as, to tumble from a scaffold.
3. 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.
4. To play mountebank tricks. Rowe.