[f. next.] An act of tumbling; the condition of being tumbled.
1. An act of acrobatic tumbling; an acrobatic feat. rare.
1824. Landor, Imag. Corr., Gen. Lascy & Curate Merino, II. 75. A tumble of heels over head, a feat performed by beggar-boys on the roads.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. ii. 28. A few hearty tumbles, all alone.
2. An accidental fall; also, the falling of a stream.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 21 Nov. In case of a tumble, it was utterly impossible to come alive to the bottom.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XII. viii. The landlord … became perfectly well acquainted with the tumble of Sophia from her horse.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 116. The end … was always a plunge and tumble in the deeper snow.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxviii. 60. As hill-born brook … O’er his moss-grown crags leaps with a tumble a-down.
1880. Miss Bird, Japan, I. 101. Mountains … noisy with the dash and tumble of a thousand streams.
b. fig. A fall, downfall.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., II. i. The Demoivre Baronet had a bloody Tumble [at cards].
1765. G. Williams, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 404. Pembroke gave him such a tumble the other night, by telling him Mr. Pitt would no more trust him than his postilion, that [etc.].
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., III. x. Our unlooked-for tumble [from high estate].
1886. Pall Mall G., 8 Oct., 11/2. There will be a terrible tumble in the price of American oil in Europe.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xxvi. Here were all my dreams come to a sad tumble.
c. In phrase ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE, q.v.
3. Tumbled condition; disorder, confusion, disturbance; a confused or tangled heap.
1634. Jackson, Creed, VII. xxxii. § 4. Some authority in all this tumble did still remain in the tribe of Judah.
1641. Laud, Wks. (1853), VI. 88. After much tumble, a major part of the votes made choice of me.
1755. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), III. 129. I could not expect that any drawing could give a full idea of the … masterly tumble of the feathers [of Walpole’s eagle]. Ibid. (1762–71), Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. x. 138. Rubens was never greater than in landscape; the tumble of his rocks and trees [etc.] show a variety of genius.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxxi. Glad … that his story might get out of the tumble which all our talk had made in it.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 21 March, 5/1. The moorhen … swimming out from the overhanging tumble of bush and bramble.
